Authors: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Peter Hutchinson (Editor), Elisabeth Stopp
ISBN-13: 9780140447200, ISBN-10: 0140447202
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Date Published: March 1999
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Throughout his long, hectic and astonishingly varied life, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) would jot down his passing thoughts on theatre programmes, visiting cards, draft manuscripts and even bills... Goethe was probably the last true 'Renaissance Man'. Although employed as a Privy Councillor at the Duke of Weimar's court, where he helped oversee major mining, road-building and irrigation projects, he also painted, directed plays, carried out research in anatomy, botany and optics - and still found time to produce masterpieces in every literary genre. His 1,413 maxims and reflections reveal not only some of his deepest thoughts on art, ethics, literature and natural science, but also his immediate reactions to books, chance encounters or his administrative work. With a freshness and immediacy which vividly conjure up Goethe the man, they make an ideal introduction to one of the greatest of European writers.
Preface | ||
Introduction | ||
Further Reading | ||
A Note on the Text | ||
Maxims and Reflections | ||
From Elective Affinities (1809) | ||
From Ottilie's Diary | 3 | |
From Art and Antiquity | ||
Vol. I, issue 3: Naivety and Humour (1818) | 8 | |
Vol. II, issue 3: Matters of Serious Moment (1820) | 9 | |
Vol. III, issue 1: Own and Adopted Ideas in Proverbial Formulation (1821) | 10 | |
Vol. IV, issue 2: Own and Assimilated Material (1823) | 19 | |
Vol. V, issue 1: Individual Points (1824) | 26 | |
Vol. V, issue 2: Individual Points (1825) | 29 | |
Vol. V, issue 3: Individual Points (1826) | 34 | |
Vol. VI, issue 1: [untitled] (1827) | 45 | |
From the Periodical Issues on Morphology | ||
Vol. I, issue 4: [untitled] (1822) | 47 | |
From the Periodical Issues on the Natural Sciences | ||
Vol. II, issue 1: Old Ideas, Almost out of Date (1823) | 52 | |
From Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (1829) | ||
Thoughts about Art, Ethics and Nature in the Spirit of the Travellers | 57 | |
From Makarie's Archive | 82 | |
Posthumous | ||
On Literature and Life | 108 | |
On Art and Art History: Aphorisms for the Attention of Friends and Opponents | 136 | |
On Nature and Natural Science | 144 | |
Sketchy, Doubtful, Incomplete Jottings | 166 | |
Addenda from the Posthumous Papers | 178 | |
Notes | 180 |