The Life and Works of Goethe: With Sketches of His Age and Contemporaries from Published and Unpublished Sources

by George Henry Lewes

Overview

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was one of Germany's greatest intellectuals. He exerted enormous influence in many fields, through works ranging from literature, linguistics and philosophy to the theory of colours and the biological sciences. Goethe's poetry and plays inspired music and opera as well as later writers, and his thought influenced philosophers including Nietzsche and Jung. Darwin himself referred to Goethe's botanical studies. The British philosopher and literary critic G. H. Lewes (1817-1878) carried out research for this hugely successful two-volume biography during a trip to Berlin and Weimar in 1854. First published in 1855, and reissued here in the second, 1858 edition, it draws on personal letters and recollections provided by Goethe's closest friends, family and colleagues to construct a portrait of this polymath, and assess how his personal relationships shaped his legacy to the world. Volume 2 covers the period from 1779 until Goethe's death.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108027632
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/17/2011
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - Literary Studies
Pages:	422
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Book V. Crystals. 1779–1793: 1. New birth; 2. Iphigenia; 3. Progress; 4. Preparations for Italy; 5. Italy; 6. Egmont; 7. Return home; 8. Christiane Vulpius; 9. Tasso; 10. The poet as a man of science; 11. The campaign in France; 12. Home once again; Book VI. Friendship with Schiller. 1794–1805: 1. The Dioscuri; 2. Wilhelm Meister; 3. The romantic school; 4. Hermann und Dorothea; 5. The theatrical manager; 6. Schiller's last years; 7. Faust; 8. The lyrical poems; Book VII. Sunset. 1805–1832: 1. The Battle of Jena; 2. Bettina and Napoleon; 3. Elective affinities; 4. Politics and religion; 5. The activity of age; 6. Second part of Faust; 7. The closing scenes; Index.