Maxims and Reflections

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141939186
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	12/01/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)

Trans. Elisabeth Stopp, Edited With An Introduction And Notes By Peter Hutchinson

Table of Contents

Maxims and ReflectionsPreface
Introduction
Further Reading
A Note on the Text
FROM ELECTIVE AFFINITIES (1809)
From Ottilie's Diary

FROM ART AND ANTIQUITY
Vol. I, issue 3: Naïvety and Humour (1818)
Vol. II, issue 3: Matters of Serious Moment (1820)
Vol. III, issue 1: Own and Adopted Ideas in Proverbial Formulation (1821)
Vol. IV, issue 2: Own and Assimilated Material (1823)
Vol. V, issue 1: Individual Points (1824)
Vol. V, issue 2: Individual Points (1825)
Vol. V, issue 3: Individual Points (1826)
Vol. VI, issue 1: [untitled] (1827)

FROM THE PERIODICAL ISSUES ON MORPHOLOGY
Vol. I, issue 4: [untitled] (1822)

FROM THE PERIODICAL ISSUES ON THE NATURAL SCIENCES
Vol. II, issue 1: Old Ideas, Almost out of Date (1823)

FROM WILHELM MEISTER'S JOURNEYMAN YEARS (1829)
Thoughs about Art, Ethics and Nature in the Spirit of the Travellers
From Makarie's Archive

POSTHUMOUS
On Literature and Life
On Art and Art History: Aphorisms for the Attention of Friends and Opponents
On Nature and Natural Science
Sketchy, Doubtful, Incomplete Jottings
Addenda from the Posthumous Papers

Notes