Letters from Goethe to Lavater from the Years 1774 to 1783

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
113K words
Chapters
12

Tags

Foreign Language Books Foreign Literature Literary GiantsComplex HumanitySpiritual ComfortIntellectual EnlightenmentTender SentimentMoral CultivationEpistolary FormTraditional AestheticsEighteenth CenturyCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Briefe von Goethe an Lavater aus den Jahren 1774 bis 1783 by GoetheAuthor: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832,Language: German, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Aug 4, 2015

Editor's review

This collection of letters (1774–1783) is Goethe's private correspondence with the Swiss theologian Lavater, written from his youth into early maturity. The German original is freely available from Project Gutenberg as a public-domain electronic text. Its value lies first at the documentary level: the letters were not written for publication, their tone is informal, and they offer a direct view of Goethe's habits of thought and emotional fluctuations in the years after The Sorrows of Young Werther, while also preserving the syntax and vocabulary of eighteenth-century German letter-writing. Second, spanning nearly a decade, the letters run roughly parallel to Goethe's life changes before and after taking office in the Duchy of Weimar, and can serve as first-hand corroboration for understanding his early intellectual trajectory. The highlight is the immediacy and unpolished expression of private correspondence, which forms a contrast with his formal works. The reading context suits German literary studies, eighteenth-century European intellectual history, or late-Enlightenment social networks, and also readers interested in Goethe's life who are willing to read the original. A caution: the book is a German text, and the epistolary genre lacks plot momentum, so readers need some language foundation and background knowledge.

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Reading tips

  1. First read through once to grasp the overall timeline, then read in detail by year, noting changes in tone and focus.
  2. When encountering old-fashioned eighteenth-century German expressions, do not parse word by word; first follow the sentence to grasp the general meaning.
  3. Read alongside Goethe's works from the same period and his experiences before and after taking office in Weimar, placing the letters back into their concrete life context.
  4. Read only a few letters at a time and jot down recurring themes and figures for easy review.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12

FAQ

To whom did Goethe write these letters? They are Goethe's private letters to the Swiss theologian and writer Lavater, written between 1774 and 1783. The letters were not written for publication, so they retain a relatively informal private tone.
What language foundation is needed to read this book? The book is the German original, a public-domain electronic text. Intermediate or higher German reading ability is preferable; beginners can first use a bilingual edition or translation to become familiar with the content, then return to the original.
What is the difference between the epistolary form and Goethe's formal works? Letters are private communication written on the spot, not edited for publication; the tone is more direct and more fragmentary. Reading them alongside his formal works reveals a side of Goethe's everyday thinking beyond his creative writing.

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About the author

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832 Author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is a highly important writer in the history of German literature, whose work spans poetry, fiction and drama. The library holds 75 of his works, including the tragedy Faust: Der Tragödie erster Teil in several editions and translations, the epistolary novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther — Band 2, and the play Iphigeneia Tauriissa. Faust centers on a scholar's pact with the devil, combining philosophical reflection with poetic language; Die Leiden des jungen Werther uses the epistolary form to portray the conflict between personal feeling and social constraint. Goethe's works cover a wide range of subjects and combine lyricism with philosophical depth, exerting a profound influence on German literature and later European writing. Public information is limited, so biographical details are omitted here.