Title:  Autobiography

Author:  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
        Translated by John Oxenford

Release Date:  May, 2004 [EBook #5733] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 18, 2002]

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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THE WORKS OF JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

TRANSLATORS

Thomas Carlyle
Henry W. Longfellow
sir Walter Scott
Bayard Taylor

Edward CHAWNER
Chas. J. Sprague
Leopold Noa
Henry Dale

John Oxenford
Theodore Martin
W. E. AYTOUN
E. A. Bowring

A. J. W. Morrison
G. H. Lewes
J. S. Dwight
Anna Swanwick

The GOTTINGEN edition of Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe’s works is limited to one thousand copies,
of which this is number 976

[Illustration:  Picture of Goethe]

GOTTINGEN EDITION

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

TRUTH AND FICTION RELATING TO MY LIFE

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

Translated by
John Oxenford

Volume I.

Philadelphia and Chicago
J. H. Moore and company

INTRODUCTION.

By Thomas Carlyle.

It would appear that for inquirers into Foreign Literature, for all men anxious to see and understand the European world as it lies around them, a great problem is presented in this Goethe; a singular, highly significant phenomenon, and now also means more or less complete for ascertaining its significance.  A man of wonderful, nay, unexampled reputation and intellectual influence among forty millions of reflective, serious and cultivated men, invites us to study him; and to determine for ourselves, whether and how far such influence has been salutary, such reputation merited.  That this call will one day be answered, that Goethe will be seen and judged of in his real character among us, appears certain enough.  His name, long familiar everywhere, has now awakened the attention of critics in all European countries to his works:  he is studied wherever true study exists:  eagerly studied even in France; nay, some considerable knowledge of his nature and spiritual importance seems already to prevail there. [Footnote:  Witness Le Tasse, Drame par Duval, and the Criticisms on it.  See also the Essays in the Globe, Nos. 55, 64 (1826).]