Goethe: Journey of the Mind

Although Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is commonly regarded as the quintessential eighteenth-century tourist, he rarely traveled outside of his native Germany. He was primarily a homebound writer during the last thirty years of his life, but his extensive mental journeys countered this sedentary lifestyle. Goethe was the prototypical eighteenth-century armchair traveler, gaining knowledge of places both near and far through the words and eyewitness accounts of others. Nancy Boerner and Gabrielle Bersier's book Goethe: Journeys of the Mind explores what made the great writer distinct from his peers and offers insight into how he was able to explore the cultures and environments of places he never saw with his own eyes.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 212 pages
\n Publication date: 28 February 2019
\n Publisher: Haus Publishing
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The German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is often regarded as the quintessential eighteenth-century traveler, although with the exception of a trip to Italy, he rarely ventured beyond his homeland. In comparison to several of his itinerant contemporaries, he undertook relatively few actual journeys, and the list of European cities in which he never set foot is quite extensive. He never visited Vienna, Paris, or London, for instance, and he only once visited Berlin. During the last thirty years of his life, he was essentially a homebound writer, but his profound mental explorations countered this sedentary lifestyle, and the misconception of Goethe as a traveler stems from the uniquely international influence of his writing. While Goethe's Italian Journey is a classic piece of travel writing, it was the product of his sole extended physical journey. The majority, rather, were of the mind, taken amidst the pages of books by others. In his reading, Goethe was the quintessential eighteenth-century armchair traveler, developing knowledge of places both near and far through the words and eyewitness accounts of others. In Goethe: Journeys of the Mind, Nancy Boerner and Gabrielle Bersier explore what made the great writer distinct from his peers and offer insight into the ways that Goethe was able to explore the cultures and environments of places he never saw with his own eyes.

\n Weight: 280g\n
Dimension: 125 x 198 x 19 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781909961524\n \n