Tales for Transformation

By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Book Overview

In 1768, at the age of nineteen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe began to study hermetic literature. This exploration had a huge impact on the early aesthetic education of Europe's great man of letters,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872862119
• ISBN13: 9780872862111
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: City Lights
• Length: 133 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 5.5" x 0.5"

Customer Reviews

A Luminous Collection

City Lights publishers are to commended for including in one volume all of Goethe's esoteric short fiction. Including his well known marchen 'The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily' which remains one of the symbolic enigmas of world literature. Included is the 'New Melusina' a lesser known romantic fairy tale that lingers in the memory long after reading. Goethe's take on Mozart's Masonic inspired 'Magic Flute' is fascinating and available to the casual reader for the first time. Though this collection is dedicated to his short prose works, if Goethe's unfinished poem 'The Mysteries' were included one would have an essential collection of his key illuminist writings outside of 'Faust'. Any time spent reading Goethe is an edifying experience.