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020 _a9780691153957
028 _a: Technical Bureau India Pvt. Ltd.
_b: 4794/23, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi
_c: TB1322
_d: 1/8/2026
082 _a831.6 BEL
100 _aBell, Matthew.
245 _aGoethe
_b: A Life in Ideas.
_c/ Matthew Bell.
260 _a, Princeton
_b: Princeton University Press
_c, 2025.
300 _axi, 755p.
_c: 24cm.
365 _b2701
520 _aJohann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was a poet, a novelist, a scientist and an essayist on a dizzying range of topics. In the nineteenth century, he was widely regarded as one of the most important thinkers of modern Europe. In this important and ambitious work, Matthew Bell offers a wide-ranging intellectual biography of Goethe, tracing the evolution of his thought and reassessing its value. Bell examines the full spectrum of Goethe’s writing, from his most well-known works, including the dramatic poem Faust and the novels Wilhelm Meister and The Sorrows of Young Werther, to lesser-known essays and reviews. Throughout, Bell draws on Goethe’s letters and diaries, most of which are stll only available in German, embedding Goethe’s thought in his lived experience and in the cultural and intellectual life of Europe from the 1750s to the 1830s. Bell presents new interpretations of Goethe’s work as one of the first evolutionary biologists, describing discoveries that anticipated Darwin’s, and of his political ideas, which pervade his literary work in ways that have not been fully recognized. Bell offers an original and illuminating explanation for the paradox of Goethe’s thought, exploring how a radical individualist who espoused liberal and innovative ideas in some areas—in particular, religion, sexuality and science—could remain consistently conservative and authoritarian in his political outlook. Rereading Goethe through this new lens, Bell shows, reveals new dimensions of work we thought we knew well.
650 _aLiterature
650 _aGerman Poetry
650 _aPoetry
700 _aMatthew Bell.
942 _cBOOK
999 _c70641
_d70641