Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

Goethe: A Life in Ideas

by Matthew Bell
Save 22% Save 22%
Current price ₹3,053.00
Original price ₹3,916.00
Original price ₹3,916.00
Original price ₹3,916.00
(-22%)
₹3,053.00
Current price ₹3,053.00

Imported Edition - Ships in 18-21 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Hardcover
  • ISBN13: 9780691153957
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press
  • Publisher Imprint: Princeton University Press
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 776
  • Original Price: USD 39.95
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 1157 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Philosophers

A new intellectual biography of Goethe, examining the paradox of his thought

Johann 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.

Matthew Bell is professor of German and comparative literature at King's College London. He is the author of Goethe's Naturalistic Anthropology; The German Tradition of Psychology in Literature and Thought, 1700-1840; and Melancholia: The Western Malady; and the editor of The Essential Goethe (Princeton).

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us