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90-507: Archibald MacMechan surmised that the novel's invention had three literary sources. The first of these was A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift , whom Carlyle intensely admired in his college years, even going by the nicknames "Jonathan" and "The Dean". In that work, the three main traditions of Western Christianity are represented by a father bestowing his three children with clothes they may never alter, but proceed to do so according to fashion. Carlyle's second influence, according to MacMechan,

180-549: A "Centre of Indifference", and on reflection of all the ancient villages and forces of history around him, ultimately comes upon the affirmation of all life in "The Everlasting Yea". The Editor, in relief, promises to return to Teufelsdröckh's book, hoping with the insights of his assembled biography to glean some new insight into the philosophy. Herr Diogenes Teufelsdröckh: (Greek/German: "God-Born Devil-Dung") The Professor of "Things in General" at Weissnichtwo University, and writer of

270-512: A copy of the biography of a noble highwayman from the German Peasants' War . In a couple of weeks the biography was reworked into a colourful drama titled Götz von Berlichingen , and the work struck a chord among Goethe's contemporaries. Since Goethe could not subsist on his income as one of the editors of a literary periodical (published by Schlosser and Merck), in May 1772 he once more took up

360-601: A deep emotional bond with the Polish pianist Maria Szymanowska , 33 at the time, and she separated from her husband. In 1821 Goethe's friend Carl Friedrich Zelter introduced him to the 12-year-old Felix Mendelssohn . Goethe, now in his seventies, was greatly impressed by the child, leading to perhaps the earliest confirmed comparison to Mozart in the following conversation between Goethe and Zelter: "Musical prodigies ... are probably no longer so rare; but what this little man can do in extemporizing and playing at sight borders

450-411: A devotion to the theater, and was greatly fascinated by the puppet shows that were annually arranged by occupying French Soldiers at his home and which later became a recurrent theme in his literary work Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship . He also took great pleasure in reading works on history and religion. Of this period he wrote: I had from childhood the singular habit of always learning by heart

540-412: A few months, this put an early end to his law career. Around this time, Goethe became acquainted with the court of Darmstadt , where his inventiveness was praised. It was from that world that there came Johann Georg Schlosser (who later became Goethe's brother-in-law) and Johann Heinrich Merck . Goethe also pursued literary plans again; this time, his father did not object, and even helped. Goethe obtained

630-671: A great admirer of Goethe's in his early youth, sending him some of his earlier works with praising cover notes. The meeting is said to be of a strikingly unsuccessful nature, with Heine completely omitting the meeting in the Harzreise , and speaking flippantly of it in much later life. In 1832, Goethe died in Weimar of apparent heart failure. He is buried in the Ducal Vault at Weimar's Historical Cemetery . The last words of Goethe usually abridged as Mehr Licht! , that is, "more light!", although

720-680: A long book of German idealist philosophy called Clothes, Their Origin and Influence , the review of which forms the contents of the novel. Both professor and book are fictional. The Editor: The narrator of the novel, who in reviewing Teufelsdröckh's book, reveals much about his own tastes, as well as deep sympathy towards Teufelsdröckh, and much worry as to social issues of his day. His tone varies between conversational, condemning and even semi-Biblical prophecy. The Reviewer should not be confused with Carlyle himself, seeing as much of Teufelsdröckh's life implements Carlyle's own biography. Hofrath: Hofrath Heuschrecke (i. e. State-Councillor Grasshopper)

810-451: A mutually wary relationship ever since first becoming acquainted in 1788. This collaborative friendship lasted until Schiller's death in 1805. In 1806, Goethe was living in Weimar with his mistress Christiane Vulpius , the sister of Christian A. Vulpius and daughter of archivist Johann Friedrich Vulpius (1725–1786), and their son August von Goethe . On 13 October, Napoleon 's army invaded

900-419: A number of Goethe's poems to music. His other compositions inspired by Goethe include the overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Op. 27, 1828), and the cantata Die erste Walpurgisnacht ( The First Walpurgis Night , Op. 60, 1832). Heinrich Heine , on his hiking tour through Germany (the trip immortalised in his work Die Harzreise ) was granted an audience with Goethe in 1824 in Weimar. Heine had been

990-613: A reply from Teufelsdröckh's office in the form of several bags of paper scraps (rather esoterically organised according to the signs of the Latin Zodiac ) on which are written autobiographical fragments. At the writing of Book Two, the Editor has somewhat organised the fragments into a coherent narrative. As a boy, Teufelsdröckh was left in a basket on the doorstep of a childless couple in the German country town of Entepfuhl ("Duck-Pond"); his father

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1080-526: A retired sergeant of Frederick the Great and his mother a very pious woman, who to Teufelsdröckh's gratitude, raises him in utmost spiritual discipline. In very flowery language, Teufelsdröckh recalls at length the values instilled in his idyllic childhood, the Editor noting most of his descriptions originating in intense spiritual pride. Teufelsdröckh eventually is recognized as being clever, and sent to Hinterschlag (slap-behind) Gymnasium . While there, Teufelsdröckh

1170-664: A similar journey, and his example was a major motivating factor for Goethe to make the trip. More importantly, however, the work of Johann Joachim Winckelmann had provoked a general renewed interest in the classical art of ancient Greece and Rome . Thus Goethe's journey had something of the nature of a pilgrimage to it. During the course of his trip Goethe met and befriended the artists Angelica Kauffman and Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein , as well as encountering such notable characters as Lady Hamilton and Alessandro Cagliostro . He also journeyed to Sicily during this time, and wrote that "To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily

1260-491: A spiritual crisis, and leaves the city to wander the European countryside, but even there encounters Blumine and Towgood on their honeymoon. He sinks into a deep depression, culminating in the celebrated Everlasting No , disdaining all human activity. Still trying to piece together the fragments, the Editor surmises that Teufelsdröckh either fights in a war during this period, or at least intensely uses its imagery, which leads him to

1350-510: A spiritual crisis. If Blumine is indeed a fictionalization of Kitty Kirkpatrick , Towgood would find his original in Captain James Winslowe Phillipps, who married Kirkpatrick in 1829. Dumdrudge: Dumdrudge is an imaginary village where the natives drudge away and say nothing about it, as villagers all over the world contentedly do. " Weissnichtwo": In the book, Weissnichtwo ( weiß-nicht-wo , German for "don't-know-where")

1440-496: A strong hold on the cultivated mind of America by his 'Sartor Resartus,'—a work more full of seed-thoughts than any single volume of the present century," adding that the following publication of the Critical and Miscellaneous Essays "was in almost every one's hands." Charles Godfrey Leland wrote that he "read it through forty times ere I left college, of which I 'kept count.'" William Henry Milburn wrote that he "was as familiar with

1530-418: A wealthy Worms merchant's daughter and friend of his sister, who would later marry the merchant G. F. Schuler. Goethe studied law at Leipzig University from 1765 to 1768. He detested learning age-old judicial rules by heart, preferring instead to attend the lessons of the university professor and poet Christian Fürchtegott Gellert . In Leipzig, Goethe fell in love with Anna Katharina Schönkopf ,

1620-497: Is a loose, zigzag figure, a blind admirer of Teufelsdröckh's, an incarnation of distraction distracted, and the only one who advises the editor and encourages him in his work; a victim to timidity and preyed on by an uncomfortable sense of mere physical cold, such as the majority of the state-counsellors of the day were. Blumine: A woman associated to the German nobility with whom Teufelsdröckh falls in love early in his career. Her spurning of him to marry Towgood leads Teufelsdröckh to

1710-537: Is a song called "The Taylor Done Over" which was published in London in 1785. It has been suggested that a Scottish variant was popular in Carlyle's day and may have inspired his choice of title. Another source might have been Lord Byron 's play The Deformed Transformed (1824). The play, based on Goethe's Faust , was admired by Goethe , who was a friend and mentor of Carlyle's, and Carlyle referenced Byron in his writings from

1800-488: Is an imaginary European city, viewed as the focus, and as exhibiting the operation, of all the influences for good and evil of the time, described in terms which characterised city life in the first quarter of the 19th century; so universal appeared the spiritual forces at work in society at that time that it was impossible to say where they were and where they were not, and hence the name of the city, " Don't-know-where " (cf. Sir Walter Scott 's Kennaquhair ). Sartor Resartus

1890-584: Is clearly flummoxed by the book, first struggling to explain the book in the context of contemporary social issues in England, some of which he knows Germany to be sharing as well, then conceding that he knows Teufelsdröckh personally, but that even this relationship does not explain the curiosities of the book's philosophy. The Editor remarks that he has sent requests back to Teufelsdröckh's office in Germany for more biographical information hoping for further explanation, and

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1980-449: Is disputed as Vogel was not in the room at the moment Goethe died, something he himself says in his account: " [...] "More light" is said to have been the last words of the man, who always hated darkness in every respect, as I had left the dying room for a moment. [...] " Thomas Carlyle , in his letter to John Carlyle (2 July 1832) records that he had learned the version Macht die Fensterladen auf, damit ich mehr Licht bekomme! ("Open

2070-404: Is intellectually stimulated, and befriended by a few of his teachers, but frequently bullied by other students. His reflections on this time of his life are ambivalent: glad for his education, but critical of that education's disregard for actual human activity and character, as regarding both his own treatment and his education's application to politics. While at University, Teufelsdröckh encounters

2160-425: Is so vast, so pervasive, that it is difficult to overstate." Tarr notes its influence on such leading American writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson , Emily Dickinson , Henry David Thoreau , Herman Melville , Margaret Fuller , Louisa May Alcott and Mark Twain ( Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe were among those that read and objected to the book). Andrew Preston Peabody wrote in 1860 that "Carlyle first took

2250-662: Is thus convinced that the Soldans were Hungarians from the Maramureș region. However, noble families with the name Soldan can also be found in Prussia and Sweden , so a possible German origin of the family should not be excluded. The family might have first become Hungarian in Maramureș and then Romanian in Moldavia . Goethe's grandfather, Friedrich Georg Goethe  [ de ] (1657–1730) moved from Thuringia in 1687 and changed

2340-444: Is to be derived from phenomena, continually shifting over time, as cultures reconstruct themselves in changing fashions, power-structures, and faith-systems. The book contains a very Fichtean conception of religious conversion : based not on the acceptance of God but on the absolute freedom of the will to reject evil, and to construct meaning. This has led some writers to see Sartor Resartus as an early existentialist text. One of

2430-492: Is to not have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything." While in Southern Italy and Sicily, Goethe encountered, for the first time genuine Greek (as opposed to Roman) architecture, and was quite startled by its relative simplicity. Winckelmann had not recognized the distinctness of the two styles. Goethe's diaries of this period form the basis of the non-fiction Italian Journey . Italian Journey only covers

2520-465: The Metamorphosis of Plants , was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy. In 1791 he was made managing director of the theatre at Weimar , and in 1794 he began a friendship with the dramatist , historian, and philosopher Friedrich Schiller , whose plays he premiered until Schiller's death in 1805. During this period Goethe published his second novel, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship ;

2610-617: The Sturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe became a member of the Duke's privy council (1776–1785), sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby Ilmenau , and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the University of Jena . He also contributed to the planning of Weimar's botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace . Goethe's first major scientific work,

2700-500: The Battle of Valmy against revolutionary France , assisting Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach during the failed invasion of France. Again during the Siege of Mainz , he assisted Karl August as a military observer. His written account of these events can be found within his Complete Works . In 1794, Friedrich Schiller wrote to Goethe offering friendship; they had previously had only

2790-718: The Holy Roman Empire . Though he had studied law in Leipzig and had been appointed Imperial Councillor, Johann Caspar Goethe was not involved in the city's official affairs. Johann Caspar married Goethe's mother, Catharina Elisabeth Textor (1731–1808), in Frankfurt on 20 August 1748, when he was 38 and she was 17. All their children, with the exception of Johann Wolfgang and his sister Cornelia Friederica Christiana (1750–1777), died at an early age. The young Goethe received from his father and private tutors lessons in subjects common at

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2880-686: The Transcendental Movement . In 1834, Harriet Martineau , visiting from England, observed its effect: "The book is acting upon them with wonderful force. It has regenerated the preaching of more than one of the clergy; and, I have reason to believe, the minds and lives of several of the laity." After its 1836 arrival in Boston as a book, Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham accurately predicted that reaction would be divided between those that found it vapid and convoluted and those that found it insightful and philosophically fruitful. James Russell Lowell regarded

2970-762: The idyll of Hermann and Dorothea , the Roman Elegies and the verse drama The Natural Daughter . In the last period, between Schiller's death, in 1805, and his own, appeared Faust Part One (1808), Elective Affinities (1809), the West-Eastern Diwan (an 1819 collection of poems in the Persian style, influenced by the work of Hafez ), his autobiographical Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit ( From My Life: Poetry and Truth , published between 1811 and 1833) which covers his early life and ends with his departure for Weimar, his Italian Journey (1816–17), and

3060-521: The Duchy's chancellor of the Exchequer left his office, Goethe agreed to act in his place and did so for two and a half years; this post virtually made him prime minister and the principal representative of the Duchy. Goethe was ennobled in 1782 (this being indicated by the " von " in his name). In that same year, Goethe moved into what was his primary residence in Weimar for the next 50 years. As head of

3150-719: The Saxe-Weimar War Commission, Goethe participated in the recruitment of mercenaries into the Prussian and British military during the American Revolution. The author Daniel Wilson claims that Goethe engaged in negotiating the forced sale of vagabonds, criminals, and political dissidents as part of these activities. Goethe's journey to the Italian peninsula and Sicily from 1786 to 1788 was of great significance in his aesthetic and philosophical development. His father had made

3240-482: The beginnings of books, and the divisions of a work, first of the five books of Moses , and then of the Aeneid and Ovid 's Metamorphoses . ... If an ever active imagination, of which that tale may bear witness, led me hither and thither, if the medley of fable and history, mythology and religion, threatened to bewilder me, I readily fled to those oriental regions, and plunged into the first books of Moses, and there, amid

3330-502: The book and Carlyle. Emerson's savvy dealing with the overseas publishers would ensure Carlyle received high compensation, which the novel did not attain in Britain. The first British edition would be published in London in 1838. "Sartor Resartus" is usually translated as "The Tailor Re-tailored"; it has also been rendered as "The Tailor Repatched", "The Tailor Patched", "The Clothes Volume Edited", and as "The Tailor Made Whole Again". There

3420-419: The book as "the signal for a sudden mental and moral mutiny". In 1855, George Eliot wrote of Carlyle: The character of his influence is best seen in the fact that many of the men who have the least agreement with his opinions are those to whom the reading of Sartor Resartus was an epoch in the history of their minds. According to Rodger L. Tarr, "The influence of Sartor Resartus upon American Literature

3510-526: The book into Pont-Aven . Maurice Maeterlinck valued Carlyle's ideas on silence. Claude Debussy called the book "that cruel breviary of humor" and imagined a missing chapter, "The Relationship of the Hat to Music." Martin Luther King Jr. paraphrased a line from book 2, chapter 7, paragraph 4 of Sartor Resartus in a sermon delivered in 1957: "In our moments of despair, some of us find ourselves crying out with

3600-659: The cellar against the wild pillaging soldiery was her work. Goethe noted in his diary: "Fires, rapine, a frightful night... Preservation of the house through steadfastness and luck." The luck was Goethe's, the steadfastness was displayed by Christiane. Days afterward, on 19 October 1806, Goethe legitimized their 18-year relationship by marrying Christiane in a quiet marriage service at the Jakobskirche in Weimar. They had already had several children together by this time, including their son, Julius August Walter von Goethe (1789–1830), whose wife, Ottilie von Pogwisch (1796–1872), cared for

3690-417: The comedy Die Mitschuldigen . The inn Auerbachs Keller and its legend of Johann Georg Faust 's 1525 barrel ride impressed him so much that Auerbachs Keller became the only real place in his closet drama Faust Part One . Given that he was making little progress in his formal studies, Goethe was forced to return to Frankfurt at the end of August 1768. Back in Frankfurt, Goethe became severely ill. During

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3780-602: The daughter of a craftsman and innkeeper, writing cheerful verses about her in the Rococo genre. In 1770, he released anonymously his first collection of poems, Annette . His uncritical admiration for many contemporary poets evaporated as he developed an interest in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Christoph Martin Wieland . By this time, Goethe had already written a great deal, but he discarded nearly all of these works except for

3870-528: The death of his first wife in 1705 he married Cornelia Schellhorn, née Walther (1668–1754), widow of the innkeeper Johannes Schellhorn (died 1704), with whom he had four more children, including Johann Caspar Goethe, father of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe's father, Johann Caspar Goethe (1710–1782), lived with his family in a large house (today the Goethe House ) in Frankfurt , then a free imperial city of

3960-452: The ducal library. He was, moreover, the Duke's friend and chief adviser . In 1776, Goethe formed a close relationship with Charlotte von Stein , a married woman seven years older than him. The intimate bond with her lasted for ten years, after which Goethe abruptly left for Italy without giving his companion any notice. She was emotionally distraught at the time, but they were eventually reconciled. Aside from his official duties, Goethe

4050-512: The earnest belief of Carlyle, "It seems that God sits in His heaven and does nothing." The novel has been identified as containing the first appearance in English of the proverb " Speech is silver, silence is golden ", as well as the first English use of the expression " meaning of life ." Scottish literary critic Alastair Fowler used the book as an example of his term " poioumenon ", a work that addresses

4140-673: The editor constantly complains are overly fragmented or derivative of Goethe . Though widely and erroneously reported as having been burned by Carlyle, the unfinished novel is still extant in draft form; several passages were moved verbatim to Sartor Resartus , but with their context radically changed. Carlyle had difficulty finding a publisher for the novel, and he began composing it as an article in October 1831 at Craigenputtock . Fraser's Magazine serialised it in 1833–1834. The text would first appear in volume form in Boston in 1836, its publication arranged by Ralph Waldo Emerson , who much admired

4230-661: The elder Goethe until his death in 1832. August and Ottilie had three children: Walther, Freiherr von Goethe (1818–1885), Wolfgang, Freiherr von Goethe (1820–1883) and Alma von Goethe (1827–1844). Christiane von Goethe died in 1816. Johann reflected, "There is nothing more charming to see than a mother with her child in her arms, and there is nothing more venerable than a mother among a number of her children." After 1793, Goethe devoted his endeavours primarily to literature. In 1812, he travelled to Teplice and Vienna both times meeting his admirer Ludwig van Beethoven , who had set music to Egmont two years prior in 1810. By 1820, Goethe

4320-513: The end of August 1771, Goethe acquired the academic degree of the Licentiate in Law from Strasbourg and was able to establish a small legal practice in Frankfurt. Although in his academic work he had given voice to an ambition to make jurisprudence progressively more humane, his inexperience led him to proceed too vigorously in his first cases, for which he was reprimanded and lost further clientele. Within

4410-497: The everlasting Nay, the Centre of Indifference, and the everlasting Yea, as with the side walk in front of my house." Keir Hardie recalled reading the book as a teenager until "the spirit of it somewhat entered into me". His encounter with Carlyle became one of the most enduring influences of his life, shaping his radicalism and pacifism. Jorge Luis Borges greatly admired the book, recounting that in 1916 at age 17 "[I] discovered, and

4500-458: The first prince of independent Moldavia, Bogdan I , and then Romanised their name. Historians Radu Rosetti and Gheorghe Ghibănescu also argue that in the charter from 1411 the family name is written before the first name, this being a custom only in Hungarian documents. Moreover, the first name of Peter's brother, Miclaus, could come from the Hungarian form of Nicholas, which is Miklós. Rosetti

4590-580: The first year of Goethe's visit. The remaining year is largely undocumented, aside from the fact that he spent much of it in Venice . This "gap in the record" has been the source of much speculation over the years. In the decades which immediately followed its publication in 1816, Italian Journey inspired countless German youths to follow Goethe's example. This is pictured, somewhat satirically, in George Eliot 's Middlemarch . In late 1792, Goethe took part in

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4680-449: The form of an 1835 letter to Carlyle from his friend John Sterling . Sterling compared it to François Rabelais , Michel de Montaigne , Laurence Sterne and Jonathan Swift , while taking issue with Carlyle's style and what he perceived as Teufelsdröckh's pantheism . Sartor Resartus was best received in America, where Carlyle became a dominant cultural influence and a perceived leader of

4770-652: The four greatest novels ever written, while the American philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson selected Goethe as one of six "representative men" in his work of the same name (along with Plato , Emanuel Swedenborg , Montaigne , Napoleon , and Shakespeare ). Goethe's comments and observations form the basis of several biographical works, notably Johann Peter Eckermann 's Conversations with Goethe (1836). His poems were set to music by many composers including Mozart , Beethoven , Schubert , Berlioz , Liszt , Wagner , and Mahler . Through his maternal grandmother,

4860-439: The last words of Goethe, 'Open the window, let us have more light' (this about an hour before painless death, his eyes failing him)." Even though the context was different, these words, especially the abridged version, which turned into a dictum, usually used as a mean to illustrate the pro-Enlightenment worldview of Goethe. The first production of Richard Wagner 's opera Lohengrin took place in Weimar in 1850. The conductor

4950-482: The late 1820s. The novel takes the form of a long review by a somewhat cantankerous unnamed Editor for the English publication Fraser's Magazine (in which the novel was first serialised without any distinction of the content as fictional) who is, upon request, reviewing the fictional German book Clothes, Their Origin and Influence by the fictional philosopher Diogenes Teufelsdröckh (Professor of "Things in General" at Weissnichtwo "Know not where" University). The Editor

5040-426: The latter case, Goethe made a desperate passion of what was in reality a hearty and relaxed friendship. Despite the immense success of Werther , it did not bring Goethe much financial gain since the protection later afforded by copyright laws at that time virtually did not exist. (In later years Goethe would counter this problem by periodically authorizing "new, revised" editions of his Complete Works .) In 1775, on

5130-486: The miraculous, and I could not have believed it possible at so early an age." "And yet you heard Mozart in his seventh year at Frankfurt?" said Zelter. "Yes", answered Goethe, "... but what your pupil already accomplishes, bears the same relation to the Mozart of that time that the cultivated talk of a grown-up person bears to the prattle of a child." Mendelssohn was invited to meet Goethe on several later occasions, and set

5220-607: The notion of Volkspoesie (folk poetry). On 14 October 1772 Goethe hosted a gathering in his parents home in honour of the first German "Shakespeare Day". His first acquaintance with Shakespeare's works is described as his personal awakening in the field of literature. On a trip to the village of Sessenheim in October 1770, Goethe fell in love with Friederike Brion , but the tryst ended in August 1771. Several of Goethe's poems, like " Willkommen und Abschied ", " Sesenheimer Lieder " and " Heidenröslein ", date to this period. At

5310-442: The original claimed last words quote was longer. The earliest known account was of Karl Wilhelm Müller's, which gives all of his last words: "Macht doch den zweiten Fensterladen in der Stube auch auf, damit mehr Licht hereinkomme." ("Open the second shutter in the living room so that more light comes in.") According to his doctor Carl Vogel  [ de ] , his last words were, Mehr Licht! (More light!), but this

5400-461: The outbreak in Vienna, at age 16. Walther and Wolfgang neither married nor had any children. Walther's gravestone states: "With him ends Goethe's dynasty, the name will last forever," marking the end of Goethe's personal bloodline. While he has no direct descendants, his siblings do. The most important of Goethe's works produced before he went to Weimar were Götz von Berlichingen (1773), a tragedy that

5490-477: The practice of law, this time at Wetzlar . In 1774 he wrote the book which would bring him worldwide fame, The Sorrows of Young Werther . The broad shape of the work's plot is largely based on what Goethe experienced during his time at Wetzlar with Charlotte Buff (1753–1828) and her fiancé, Johann Christian Kestner (1741–1800), as well as the suicide of the Goethes' friend Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem (1747–1772). In

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5580-472: The process of its own creation. The book is increasingly recognized as "the founding text for the emergence of the serious and organized study of clothing", otherwise termed "dress studies" or "fashion theory". Archibald MacMechan Archibald McKellar MacMechan FRSC (June 21, 1862 – 7 August 1933) was a Canadian academic at Dalhousie University and writer. His works deal mainly with Nova Scotia and its history. The Halifax Disaster (Explosion)

5670-730: The recurring jokes is Carlyle giving humorously appropriate German names to places and people in the novel, such as Teufelsdröckh's publisher being named Stillschweigen and Co. (meaning Silence and Company) and lodgings being in Weissnichtwo (meaning Know-not-where). Teufelsdröckh's father is introduced as an earnest believer in Walter Shandy 's doctrine that "there is much, nay almost all in Names." James Fraser complained to Carlyle that its initial serial publication had been received negatively in many quarters. The most substantive early treatment came in

5760-412: The remainder of Book One contains summaries of Teufelsdröckh's book, including translated quotations, accompanied by the Editor's many objections, many of them buttressed by quotations from Goethe and Shakespeare . The review becomes longer and longer due to the Editor's frustration at the philosophy, and his desire to expose its outrageous nature. At the final chapter of Book One, the Editor has received

5850-421: The renowned theatre company of Abel Seyler until a 1774 fire had destroyed Schloss Weimar . Karl August came of age when he turned eighteen in 1775, although his mother continued to be a major presence at the court. So it was that Goethe took up residence in Weimar , where he remained for the rest of his life and where, over the course of many years, he held a succession of offices, including superintendent of

5940-566: The renowned German poet and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe belonged to the descendants of the Soldan family and thus had Turkish ancestry. Bernt Engelmann has said that "the German poet prince [i.e. Goethe] with oriental ancestors is by no means a rare exception." Nicolae Iorga believes that the Soldan family were originally Hungarian nobles who settled in Moldavia from Transylvania together with

6030-413: The same problems, but eventually gains a small teaching post and some favour and recognition from the German nobility. While interacting with these social circles, Teufelsdröckh meets a woman he calls Blumine (Goddess of Flowers; the Editor assumes this to be a pseudonym), and abandons his teaching post to pursue her. She spurns his advances for a British aristocrat named Towgood. Teufelsdröckh is thrust into

6120-513: The scattered shepherd tribes, found myself at once in the greatest solitude and the greatest society. Goethe also became acquainted with Frankfurt actors. Valerian Tornius wrote: Goethe – Leben, Wirken und Schaffen . In early literary attempts Goethe showed an infatuation with Gretchen , who would later reappear in his Faust , and the adventures with whom he would describe concisely in Dichtung und Wahrheit . He adored Caritas Meixner (1750–1773),

6210-440: The semi-autobiographical novel depicting a young man of deeply religious upbringing being scorned in love, and thereafter wandering. He eventually finds at least philosophical consolation in a mysterious stranger named Maurice Herbert, who invites Wotton into his home and frequently discusses speculative philosophy with him. At this point, the novel abruptly shifts to highly philosophical dialogue revolving mostly around Kant . Though

6300-408: The shutters so I can get more light!") from Sarah Austin : "[...] Mrs. Austin wrote lately that Goethe's last words were, Macht die Fensterladen auf, damit ich mehr Licht bekomme! Glorious man! Happy man! I never think of him but with reverence and pride. [...]" John Ruskin , in his Præterita , narrates a memory of him from his diary record of 25 October 1874 that Carlyle "[...] had been quoting

6390-424: The spelling of his surname (from Göthe to Goethe). In Frankfurt, he first worked as a tailor, then opened a tavern. His son and grandchildren subsequently lived on the fortune he earned. Friedrich Georg Goethe was married twice, his first marriage was to Anna Elisabeth Lutz (1667–1700), the daughter of a burgher Sebastian Lutz (died 1701), with whom he had five children, including Hermann Jakob Goethe (1697–1761), after

6480-668: The spiritual crisis that culminates in the Everlasting No. Their relationship is somewhat parodic of Werther's spurned love for Lotte in The Sorrows of Young Werther (including her name "Goddess of Flowers", which may simply be a pseudonym), though, as the Editor notes, Teufelsdröckh does not take as much incentive as does Werther. Critics have associated her with Kitty Kirkpatrick , with whom Carlyle himself fell in love before marrying Jane Carlyle . Towgood: The English aristocrat who ultimately marries Blumine, throwing Teufelsdröckh into

6570-427: The strength of his fame as the author of The Sorrows of Young Werther , Goethe was invited to the court of Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach , who later became Grand Duke in 1815. The Duke's mother, Duchess Anna Amalia , had been the long-time regent on behalf of her son until 1775 and was one of the most important patrons of the arts in her day, making her court into a centre of the arts. Her court had hosted

6660-426: The success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), and joined a thriving intellectual and cultural environment under the patronage of Duchess Anna Amalia that had already included Abel Seyler 's theatre company and Christoph Martin Wieland , and that formed the basis of Weimar Classicism . He was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar , Karl August , in 1782. Goethe was an early participant in

6750-500: The time, especially languages ( Latin , Greek , Biblical Hebrew (briefly), French, Italian, and English). Goethe also received lessons in dancing, riding , and fencing . Johann Caspar, feeling frustrated in his own ambitions, was determined that his children should have every advantage he had missed. Although Goethe's great passion was drawing, he quickly became interested in literature; Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803) and Homer were among his early favorites. He also had

6840-497: The town. The French "spoon guards", the least disciplined soldiers, occupied Goethe's house: The 'spoon guards' had broken in, they had drunk wine, made a great uproar and called for the master of the house. Goethe's secretary Riemer reports: 'Although already undressed and wearing only his wide nightgown... he descended the stairs towards them and inquired what they wanted from him.... His dignified figure, commanding respect, and his spiritual mien seemed to impress even them.' But it

6930-510: The unfinished novel deeply impressed Carlyle's wife Jane , (née Welsh) Carlyle never published it and its existence was forgotten until long after Carlyle's death. MacMechan suggests that the novel provoked Carlyle's frustration and scorn due to the "zeal for truth and his hatred for fiction" he speaks of in his letters of the time. Numerous parts of Wotton appear in the biographical section of Sartor Resartus , where Carlyle humorously turns them into Teufelsdröckh's autobiographical sketches, which

7020-490: The verse epic Hermann and Dorothea , and, in 1808, the first part of his most celebrated drama, Faust . His conversations and various shared undertakings throughout the 1790s with Schiller, Johann Gottlieb Fichte , Johann Gottfried Herder , Alexander von Humboldt , Wilhelm von Humboldt , and August and Friedrich Schlegel have come to be collectively termed Weimar Classicism . The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer named Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship one of

7110-670: The year and a half that followed, marked by several relapses, relations with his father worsened. During convalescence, Goethe was nursed by his mother and sister. In April 1770, Goethe left Frankfurt in order to finish his studies, this time at the University of Strasbourg . In Alsace , Goethe blossomed. No other landscape was to be described by him as affectionately as the warm, wide Rhineland. In Strasbourg, Goethe met Johann Gottfried Herder . The two became close friends, and crucially to Goethe's intellectual development, Herder kindled his interest in William Shakespeare , Ossian and in

7200-462: The years at Weimar before he met Schiller in 1794, he began Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and wrote the dramas Iphigenie auf Tauris ( Iphigenia in Tauris ), Egmont , and Torquato Tasso and the fable Reineke Fuchs . To the period of his friendship with Schiller belong the conception of Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (the continuation of Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship ),

7290-411: Was Franz Liszt , who chose the date 28 August in honour of Goethe, who was born on 28 August 1749. Goethe had five children with Christiane Vulpius. Only their eldest son, August, survived into adulthood. One child was stillborn, while the others died early. Through his son August and daughter-in-law Ottilie, Johann had three grandchildren: Walther, Wolfgang and Alma. Alma died of typhoid fever during

7380-602: Was a German polymath , who is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a profound and wide-ranging influence on Western literary , political , and philosophical thought from the late 18th century to the present day. A poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic, his works include plays, poetry and aesthetic criticism , as well as treatises on botany , anatomy , and color. Goethe took up residence in Weimar in November 1775 following

7470-578: Was also a friend and confidant to Duke Karl August and participated in the activities of the court. For Goethe, his first ten years at Weimar could well be described as a garnering of a degree and range of experiences which perhaps could have been achieved in no other way. In 1779, Goethe took on the War Commission of the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar , in addition to the Mines and Highways commissions. In 1782, when

7560-847: Was an official history of the Halifax Explosion . Born in Berlin, Ontario ( now known as Kitchener ), he is credited with reviving Herman Melville 's reputation in North America. He had written to Melville in 1889, right at the end of his life. He was awarded the Lorne Pierce Medal in 1932. He was a long-term member of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society . Source: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832)

7650-575: Was his own work in translating Goethe , particularly Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship , The Sorrows of Young Werther , and Faust , all of which Carlyle quotes and explicitly refers to, especially when Teufelsdröckh names his own crisis "The Sorrows of Young Teufelsdröckh". The third major influence was Tristram Shandy from which Carlyle quotes many phrases, and to which he referred in earlier letters. Carlyle worked on an earlier novel, Wotton Reinfred , which MacMechan refers to as "[t]he first draft of Sartor ." Carlyle finished seven chapters of

7740-476: Was intended to be a new kind of book: simultaneously factual and fictional, serious and satirical, speculative and historical. It ironically commented on its own formal structure, while forcing the reader to confront the problem of where "truth" is to be found. In this respect it develops techniques used much earlier in Tristram Shandy , to which it refers. The imaginary "Philosophy of Clothes" holds that meaning

7830-505: Was not to last long. Late at night they burst into his bedroom with drawn bayonets. Goethe was petrified, Christiane raised a lot of noise and even tangled with them, other people who had taken refuge in Goethe's house rushed in, and so the marauders eventually withdrew again. It was Christiane who commanded and organized the defense of the house on the Frauenplan. The barricading of the kitchen and

7920-517: Was on amiable terms with Kaspar Maria von Sternberg . In 1821, having recovered from a near fatal heart illness, the 72-year-old Goethe fell in love with Ulrike von Levetzow , 17 at the time. In 1823, he wanted to marry her, but because of the opposition of her mother, he never proposed. Their last meeting in Carlsbad on 5 September 1823 inspired his poem " Marienbad Elegy " which he considered one of his finest works. During that time he also developed

8010-413: Was overwhelmed by, Thomas Carlyle. I read Sartor Resartus , and I can recall many of its pages; I know them by heart." Many of Borges' first characteristic and most admired works employ the same technique of intentional pseudepigraphy as Carlyle, such as " The Garden of Forking Paths " and " Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius ". Paul Gauguin painted the book in his portrait of Meyer de Haan , who had imported

8100-422: Was the first work to bring him recognition, and the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (German: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers ) (1774), which gained him enormous fame as a writer in the Sturm und Drang period which marked the early phase of Romanticism . Indeed, Werther is often considered to be the "spark" which ignited the movement, and can arguably be called the world's first " best-seller ". During

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