Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship Classic Of German Literature

Author : Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781333635862
Total Pages : 846 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (358 download)

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Download or read book Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels (Classic Reprint) written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2016-09-17 with total page 846 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels Nor among readers of a far higher character, can it be expected that many will take the praiseworthy pains of Germans, reverential of their favorite author, and anxious to hunt out his most elusive charms. Few among us will disturb themselves about the allegories and typical allusions of the work; will stop to inquire whether it includes a remote emblem of human culture, or includes no such mat ter whether this is a light, airy sketch of the development of man in all his endowments and faculties, gradually proceed ing from the first rude exhibitions Of puppets and mounte banks, through the perfection of poetic and dramatic art, up to the unfolding of the principle of religion, and the greatest Of all arts, - the art of life, - or is nothing more than a bungled piece of patchwork, presenting in the shape of a novel much that should have been suppressed entirely, or at least given out by way of lecture. Whether the char acters do or do not represent distinct classes of men, includ ing various stages of human nature, from the gay, material vivacity of Philina to the severe moral grandeur Of the uncle and the splendid accomplishment of Lothario, will to most of us be Of small importance; and the everlasting disquisitions about plays and players, and politeness and activity, and art and nature, will weary many a mind that knows not and heeds not whether they are true or false. Yet every man's judgment is, in this free country, a lamp to himself: whoever is displeased will censure; and many, it is to be feared, will insist on judging Meister by the common rule, and, what is worse, condemning it, let Schlegel bawl as loudly as he pleases. To judge, says he, of this book, - new and peculiar as it is, and only to be under stood and learned from itself, by our common notion of the novel, a notion pieced together and produced out of custom and belief, out of accidental and arbitrary requisitions, is as if a child should grasp at the moon and stars, and insist on packing them into its toy-box. 1 Unhappily the most of us have boxes, and some Of them are very small. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.