The Life of Goethe (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from The Life of GoetheWith respect to the use I have made of the materials at hand, especially of Goethe's Autobiography, I can but repeat what was said in the preface to the first edition, the Dichtung und Wahrheit not only wants the egotistic garrulity and detail which give such con fessions their value, but presents great difficulties to a biographer. The main reason of this is the abiding inaccuracy of tone, which, far more misleading than the many inaccuracies of fact, gives to the whole youthful period, as narrated by him, an aspect so directly contrary to what is given by contemporary evidence, especially his own letters, that an attempt to reconcile the contradiction is futile. If any one doubts this and persists in his doubts after reading the early chapters of this work, let him take up Goethe's letters to the Countess von Stolberg, or the recently published letters to Kestner and Charlotte, and compare their tone with the tone of the Auto biography, wherein the old man depicts the youth as the old man saw him, not as the youth felt and lived. The picture of youthful follies and youthful passions comes softened through the distant avenue of years. The turbulence of a youth of genius is not indeed quite forgotten, but it is hinted with stately reserve. Jupiter, serenely throned upon Olympus, forgets that he was once a rebel with the Titans.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis 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.