Early And Miscellaneous Letters

Author : Edward Bell
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9780265162170
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (621 download)

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Download or read book Early and Miscellaneous Letters of J. W. Goethe written by Edward Bell and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2017-10-11 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Early and Miscellaneous Letters of J. W. Goethe: Including Letters to His Mother It includes in fact, with a few trifling exceptions, every known letter of Goethe's written during the first twenty-six years of his life. The exceptions are two incomplete drafts published by Scholl, of which the destination is unknown various notes of a few lines, each containing matter of no importance or interest, several being in part mere memo randa concerning the printing of Lavater's Physiognomy, ' and lastly sundry passages in the letters addressed to Auguste Stolberg, which in Opposition to the received Opinion amongst fanatical admirers of Goethe, the editor ventures to regard as being to a great extent worthless for any real biographic purpose. No doubt a similar objection might be made on the score of triviality to other letters which are not excluded, but the editor must confess that he has indulged a pre judice in favour of completeness, and that in any case he would be unwilling to exclude the smallest note that illustrates the writer's character or circumstances. More over, when an arbitrary right of tacit excision is claimed, complete confidence cannot be placed in what is left, and a specific apology in each case for omission is apt to be worse than the crime of commission. It is no disparage ment to a great man that he writes to his intimate friends on trivial matters and if Goethe as a young man makes a request to Fraulein Fahlmer for articles of the toilet, it is no more derogatory than to inform Schiller, many years later, that he is sending him a cod-fish, turnips, or other eatables. The publications of such details may be shocking to the critical scholar, but to the more artistic student they are welcome as giving reality to the picture which, with or without reason, every one likes to make of a great man's life and surroundings; and this is a fact which Goethe himself in his writings is the last to ignore. 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.