Archiv der Kategorie: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von

Goethe’s Literary Essays – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Professor Spingarn has done students of literature a real favor; for he has gathered into a single and well-made volume, golden pages from one of the great masters of literature. As divergent-minded judges as Carlyle, Matthew Arnold and Sainte-Beuve acclaimed Goethe the supreme literary critic of all time and, whatever might be said against so superlative an opinion, certainly Goethe’s many-sidedness, his undoubted genius, and his keen insight all conspired to give his judgments on literature a value too great to be ignored. All phases of his critical activity are represented in this excellent volume, which is the work of several translators, all of high standard. Goethe was keenly interested in French … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

West-Eastern Divan – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This volume stands for the huge task of Dowden’s middle life-the translation of Goethe’s ‘West-Eastern Divan.’ This is a poem, as Mrs. Dowden observes in the foreword, that is known to few English readers. It is the fruit of Goethe’s Indian Summer, the last word of his cheerful and composed philosophy of life. It was written between 1814 and 1819 and was inspired not only by Goethe’s correspondence with Marianne von Willemer, but also by the von Hammer’s translation of Hafez’ poems. Speaking of translations, Mr. Dowden’s translation is overwhelmingly good. No man is so hard to translate as Goethe, and certainly no English writer has succeeded with him better – if as … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...