Life of Johann Wolfgang Goethe
1888
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was the last true polymath, a man who wrote poetry like it was breathing and science like it was art. James Sime's 1888 biography captures this extraordinary figure at the height of Victorian reverence, tracing the arc from the privileged Frankfurt childhood where a young Wolfgang devoured his father's vast library, through the explosive success of The Sorrows of Young Werther that made him the voice of a generation, to his decades in Weimar where he mentored Schiller and continued writing Faust until his final breath. Sime illuminates the personal dramas that fueled the genius, the passionate affairs, the intellectual friendships, the political upheavals, all while situating Goethe within the broader currents of German Romanticism. This is biography as homage, written when Goethe's star still blazed at its brightest, offering readers not just the facts of a life but the texture of an era when one man could embody the literary ambitions of a nation.
Editions
X-Ray
“Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast,And each will wrestle for the mastery there.””
— James Sime
“من هرگز در حسرت بال پرندگان نخواهم بود. جذبه های جانم، از کتابی به کتاب دیگر و از صفحه ای به صفحه ی دیگر مرا به جاهای بسیار دورتر می برند.””
— James Sime
“When I say to the Moment flying;'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!'Then bind me in thy bonds undying,And my final ruin I will bear!””
— James Sime
“If I wasn't a devil myself I'd give Me up to the Devil this very minute.””
— James Sime
“from desire I rush to satisfaction; from satisfaction I leap to desire.””
— James Sime
“If ever I to the moment shall say:Beautiful moment, do not pass away!Then you may forge your chains to bind me,Then I will put my life behind me,Then let them hear my death-knell toll,Then from your labours you'll be free,The clock may stop, the clock-hands fall,And time come to an end for me!””
— James Sime
“There is no day that one should skipBut one should seize, without distrust,The possible with iron grip””
— James Sime
“Yes - this I hold to with devout insistence,Wisdom's last verdict goes to say:He only earns both freedom and existenceWho must reconquer them each day.””
— James Sime
“I've studied now PhilosophyAnd Jurisprudence, Medicine,”
— James Sime
Link to this book
Add a free, dofollow link to Lex on your blog, forum, syllabus, or reading list.
<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/life-of-johann-wolfgang-goethe-e68506ac-d1ef-4ab4-bb8e-3e567747a970"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read Life of Johann Wolfgang Goethe by James Sime free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/life-of-johann-wolfgang-goethe-e68506ac-d1ef-4ab4-bb8e-3e567747a970)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/life-of-johann-wolfgang-goethe-e68506ac-d1ef-4ab4-bb8e-3e567747a970][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read Life of Johann Wolfgang Goethe by James Sime free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/life-of-johann-wolfgang-goethe-e68506ac-d1ef-4ab4-bb8e-3e567747a970Cite this book
Reading this edition for a paper or guide? Copy a citation.
Sime, James. Life of Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Lex, lex-books.com/book/life-of-johann-wolfgang-goethe-e68506ac-d1ef-4ab4-bb8e-3e567747a970.Sime, J. (1888). Life of Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/life-of-johann-wolfgang-goethe-e68506ac-d1ef-4ab4-bb8e-3e567747a970Sime, James. Life of Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/life-of-johann-wolfgang-goethe-e68506ac-d1ef-4ab4-bb8e-3e567747a970.
