The Auto Biography of Goethe: The Autobiography Étc.] Translated by John Oxenford. 13 Books. V. 2. the Autobiography [Etc.] the Concluding Books. Also ... in Italy, Tr. by the Rev. A. J. W. Morrison

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alexander James William Morrison

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

536 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1849

About the author

A master of poetry, drama, and the novel, German writer and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent 50 years on his two-part dramatic poem Faust , published in 1808 and 1832, also conducted scientific research in various fields, notably botany, and held several governmental positions.

George Eliot called him "Germany's greatest man of letters... and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Works span the fields of literature, theology, and humanism.
People laud this magnum opus as one of the peaks of world literature. Other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .

With this key figure of German literature, the movement of Weimar classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries coincided with Enlightenment, sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang, and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours , he influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology. He also long served as the privy councilor ("Geheimrat") of the duchy of Weimar.

Goethe took great interest in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, and Arabia and originated the concept of Weltliteratur ("world literature"). Despite his major, virtually immeasurable influence on German philosophy especially on the generation of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, he expressly and decidedly refrained from practicing philosophy in the rarefied sense.

Influence spread across Europe, and for the next century, his works inspired much music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Many persons consider Goethe the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in western culture as well. Early in his career, however, he wondered about painting, perhaps his true vocation; late in his life, he expressed the expectation that people ultimately would remember his work in optics.

Reviews

[Alix Stricklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well. Goethe's "fiction novels" are romantic, wandering, and have no conclusion - as books of those eras did - but his documentary writing about his early life is really fascinating. This volume is more interesting if you are an artist of some sort - writer, painter, etc. - and interested in the historical development of art in Germany. At the age he is describing, he interacted with a large number of people who were and became prominent in various fields, so the background information is fascinating. However, he is much more protective of his personal life in this book, so you don't learn nearly as much about Goethe, himself. Unfortunately, like his prose fiction works, this book just chops off. You have no clue where he is, what he's doing. I wouldn't mind his stating that this is as far as he's gotten in life (!), but it just whacks off. I just checked to see if there was a third volume - hoped there was - but, no. It just cuts off abruptly.

[Richard Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worthy.