Goethe's Literary Essays

Professor Spingarn has done students of literature a real favor; for he has gathered into a single and well-made volume, golden pages from one of the great masters of literature. As divergent-minded judges as Carlyle, Matthew Arnold and Sainte-Beuve acclaimed Goethe the supreme literary critic of all time and, whatever might be said against so superlative an opinion, certainly Goethe's many-sidedness, his undoubted genius, and his keen insight all conspired to give his judgments on literature a value too great to be ignored. All phases of his critical activity are represented in this excellent volume, which is the work of several translators, all of high standard.

Goethe was keenly interested in French and in English literature, no less than in German, and for the English reader there will be much to stimulate thought in his sympathetic appreciation of Shakespeare. Those of us who have found the great dramatist's plays strangely failing in power to lift us out of ou selves, can find much to ponder over in Goethe's declaration: "Shakespeare gets his effect by means of the living word, and it is for this reason that one should hear him read, for then the attention is not distracted either by a too adequate or too in adequate stage-setting. There is no higher . . . pleasure than to sit with closed eyes and hear a naturally expressive voice recite, not declaim, a play of Shakespeare's."

Goethe was no hard and fast critic, and as he re-read a book and found that it appealed to him in a new light, he did not hesitate to revise his earlier opinions and even to call attention to corrected impressions or reversals of judgments. It was because of his open-mindedness to new impressions that his critical dicta appear perennially fresh and stimulate the reader by their frankness and their vitality.

The task of collecting these admirable and valuable essays required a scholar. It found one in Professor Spingarn, to whom the lovers of the best in literature owe genuine gratitude for this volume. The essays are grouped under The theory of art — The theory of literature — On Shakespeare — On other writers — Extracts from the conversations with Eckermann.