Goethe and the English speaking world

The essays in this volume were originally published over many years in specialized journals. They cover the entire scope of Goethe's interest in the English-speaking world of his time. As Hennig shows, Goethe was «the last man endowed with a universal knowledge, a genius with unlimited 'Lebensbreite'». The essays explore what Goethe read, whom he met, with whom he corresponded - the immense effort he made to be fully informed of what was happening in his time. Hennig, for the first time, makes known the facts of Goethes unlimited and passionate efforts to live in contact with his contemporaries and to learn from them all that could be known in every possible field of art, science and discovery.