Book description
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 fourteen hundred
Maxims and Reflections reveal some of his deepest thought on
art, ethics, literature and natural science, but also his immediate
reactions to books, chance encounters or his administrative work.
Although variable in quality, the vast majority have a freshness and
immediacy which vividly conjure up Goethe the man. They make an ideal
introduction to one of the greatest of European writers.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)
Trans. Elisabeth Stopp, Edited With An Introduction And Notes By
Peter Hutchinson
