German poet, dramatist, novelist, translator, scientist, and musician, Johann Wolfgang van Goethe (1749-1832) was the last universal genius of the west and a master of world literature, the author of The Sorrows of Young Werther, Wilhelm Meister, and Faust. Nowhere else can one encounter a more penetrating, many-sided, and personal Goethe than in the extraordinary Conversations (1836) by Johann Peter Eckermann (1792-1854), a German author and scholar as well as Goethe's friend, archivist, and editor.Although only 31 when first meeting the 74-year-old literary giant, Eckermann quickly devoted himself to assisting Goethe during his last nine years while never failing to record their far-ranging discourse. Here is Goethe's thoughts on Byron, Carlyle, Delacroix, Hegel, Shakespeare, and Voltaire, as well as his views on art, architecture, astronomy, the Bible, Chinese literature criticism, dreams, ethics, freedom, genius, imagination, immortality, love, mind over body, sculpture, and much
