ii The Life and Works of Goethe. 



enthusiasm, and less of hero-worship than could have been expected, when the subject 

 was Goethe, and the fundamental views are so much in accordance with those of the bio- 

 grapher, as in this case. The book indeed possesses sterling merits." ECLECTIC REVIEW. 



(( IT would afford but a slight idea of the value of this work, to say that it is the 

 best biography of Goethe extant, inasmuch as there is really no other biography 

 which approximates in the slightest degree to the dignity of the subject. It would 

 be more correct to say that this is the only life of Goethe which can be consulted 



with pleasure or profit Mr. Lewes has not only qualified himself for writing of 



Goethe, by a diligent study of his works, and by a perusal of a vast mass of the printed 

 documentary evidence which bears upon the subject, but by communications with 

 those who lived under the same roof with the poet, and by 'controlling and completing 

 the testimonies of print by means of papers which have never seen the light, and in all 

 probability never will see the light.' The result of his labours of ten years is a book 

 with which no student of Goethe can safely dispense. HE HAS, IN SHORT, WRITTEN 

 A LIFE OF GOETHE WORTHY OF THE MAN, with intense love and profound knowledge 

 of the subject. It throws more light on the character and genius of Goethe than any 

 other work, and is a perfect mine of admirable impartial criticism." DAILY NEWS. 



" MR. LEWES has written this life of Goethe very much as we might have antici- 

 pated from our previous knowledge of his fitness for the undertaking. He is lively, 

 clear, acute ; his narrative is flowing and well arranged ; his criticisms are never tedious 

 or overlaboured ; they are always introduced at the proper place, and they are always 

 intelligible. His work is replete with information upon a great subject ; and we can 

 hardly conceive it possible, that its appearance will not gratify all who feel interested in 

 the history of modern art, science, philosophy, and poetry." MORNING HERALD. 



" TEN years has this life of Goethe been in preparation ten years ! the full third 

 of a literary life ! The result, however, is, that, without any exception whatever, it is 

 the best biography of the poet extant, as well as the best succinct criticism upon the 

 tendency of his mind, and upon his various productions. Mr. Lewes claims for his 

 work the authority of original matter ; and he is justified in doing so. Every page, 

 in fact, teems with facts, new for the most part, interesting as regards the greater 

 number, and many perfectly independent of what is termed the ' Goethe Literature.' 



" Germany possesses no life of the poet which can for a moment be ranked with 

 the present biography for skill in construction, for completeness, and for particular as 

 well as for general originality in respect of facts and criticisms." OBSERVER. 



" MR. LEWES has exhausted the subject ; and for our own part, long as the world 

 at large may be in coming to a precise judgment upon the great German's character, 

 we believe it will have to be formed from the materials so abundantly and conclusively 

 put together in these elaborate and well-considered volumes." BELL'S MESSENGER. 



" NOT only has the whole of the Goethe literature been ransacked, and the grains 

 of gold been extracted from its sand, but Mr. Lewes has made a pilgrimage to Weimar, 

 and studied thoroughly the outward aspects of the region which the great poet 

 honoured and illustrated by his residence. He has put himself into communication 

 with the still surviving friends and acquaintsnces of Goethe, and from them has 

 obtained many an interesting and hitherto unpublished fact. Nothing has escaped 

 his researches." MANCHESTER ADVERTISER. 



" A work which beyond question surpasses everything which even Germany has pro- 

 duced during the last Jive and twenty years For the first time the Life of our 



poet is represented in its fulness, with genial conception and loving enthusiasm ; his 

 noble personality, from every side, depicted with clearness and truth. Goethe's Life 

 has almost always in Germany been handled either by learned professors, or con- 

 structive philosophers. In Lewes, on the contrary, we see a man who, to profound * 

 and comprehensive culture, adds that other culture which a rich and varied inward 

 and outward life alone can bestow, and which brings him into congenial relationship 

 with a poet like Goethe, so as to enable him to place before us a true and life-like 



picture of Goethe's personality It is a work which will secure Lewes an 



enduring name, not only in the literature of his nation, but also in that which Goethe 

 called the world's literature." COLOGNE GAZETTE 



DAVID NUTT, PUBLISHER, 270, STRAND, LONDON. 



