The first volume of Janez Cigler’s Collected Works contains his long prose and poetry. Among his narrative works, Sreča v nesreči ('Fortune in Misfortune') from 1836 stands out as a groundbreaking work for the emerging original Slovenian narrative prose. Its symbolic role in Slovenian literature is supplemented by interpretations that have complemented each other since the beginning of the 20th century and are updated in the Collected Works in the light of comparisons with contemporary literary trends. In Cigler’s Deteljica ('Clover') (1863) and Kortonica (1866), contrary to the popular opinion that they merely imitate Sreča v nesreči, a deviation from his first narrative can be recognised in terms of ideas and content expansion. The legendary-literary Life of St Hema (1838) is Cigler’s original fusion of German and Slovenian sources about the saint of the peoples of Austrian Carinthia and Slovenia. As a poet, Cigler joined the authors of Kranjska čbelica (“The Carniolan Bee”) and later published in Novice (“News”). The Collected Works also contain two unpublished poems by Cigler. Thematically, he mainly wrote fables in verse and ballads.