Italian Journey: 1786-1788 (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Author), W. H. Auden (Translator), Elizabeth Mayer (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: December 1, 1992

In 1786, when he was already the acknowledged leader of the Sturm und Drang literary movement, Goethe set out on a journey to Italy to fulfil a personal and artistic quest and to find relief from his responsibilities and the agonies of unrequited love. As he travelled to Venice, Rome, Naples and Sicily he wrote many letters, which he later used as the basis for the Italian Journey. A journal full of fascinating observations on art and history, and the plants, landscape and the character of the local people he encountered, this is also a moving account of the psychological crisis from which Goethe emerged newly inspired to write the great works of his mature years.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in 1749. Having studied at Leipzig and Strassburg, he began to write some essays and lyrical verse, and at twenty-four wrote a play Goetz von Berlichingen, which brought him national fame and established him in the Sturm und Drang movement. He is most famous for his tragedy Werther. He died in 1832. W. H. Auden was Professor of Poetry at Oxford University from 1956 to 1960. He published poems throughout his life, and in 1946 became a US citizen. He died in 1973. Elizabeth Mayer has also translated, in collaboration with Louise Bogan, Elective Affinities and Werther.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (December 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140442332
• ISBN-13: 978-0140442335
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #81 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Nonfiction > German

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Original Beautiful Mind Goes South, May 17, 2002

By 

James Paris "Tarnmoor" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Italian Journey: 1786-1788 (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

In preparation for a trip to Italy, I began reading the accounts of famous travellers to that land: D.H. Lawrence, Charles Dickens, Tobias Smollett, and now Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I had no great expectations but was knocked for a loop from page one.

Never before had I encountered a questing mind quite like Goethe's. Almost from the moment to left Carlsbad in September 1786, he was noticing the geological structures underlying the land and the flora and fauna above it. He sits down and talks with ordinary people without an attitude -- and this after he had turned the heads of half of Europe with his SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER. Here he was journeying incognito, apparently knowing the language well enough to communicate with peasants, prelates, and nobility.

One who abhors marking books I intend to keep, I found myself underlining frequently. "In this place," he writes from Rome, "whoever looks seriously about him and has eyes to see is bound to become a stronger character." In fact, Goethe spent over a year in Rome learning art, music, science, and even sufferings the pangs of love with a young woman from Milan.

Bracketing his stay in Rome is a longish journey to Naples and Sicily, where he becomes acquainted with Sir Warren Hamilton and his consort Emma, the fascinating Princess Ravaschieri di Satriano, and other German travelers. One of them, Wilhelm Tischbein, painted a wonderful portrait of Goethe the traveller shown on the cover of the Penguin edition.

The translation of W.H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer is truly wonderful. My only negative comments are toward the Penguin editors who, out of some pennywise foolishness, have omitted translating the frequent Latin, Greek, and French quotes. I am particularly upset about the lack of a translation of the final quote from Ovid's "Tristia." In every other respect, this book is a marvel and does not at all read like a work written some 215 years ago. It is every bit as fresh and relevant as today's headlines, only ever so much more articulate!

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exquisitely unforgettable portrait of 18th century Italy., October 17, 1997

By 

Charlton Griffin "Charlton" (Thomasville, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Italian Journey: 1786-1788 (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Many people are deterred from attempting to read something...anything...by Goethe because of his extremely penetrating intelligence and dense prose. But his "Travels in Italy" are by far easier to digest than anything else by him. The journal is a straightforward diary of his sojourn to Italy as a young man sometime in the 1770's. The book has a modern ring to it, and indeed Goethe seems to foreshadow the coming of many of the things we consider "modern" today: intense self examination, scientific methodology, and anthropology. But that's not what makes this a great book. Long after you finish it you will be contemplating the wealth of pithy, insightful comments he makes about Italians in particular and humans in general. You will revisit portions of this book many times, and you will mark passages in it so you can pull it down and quote it to your friends. A fabulous feast for the intellect and a balm for the spirit.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, May 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Italian Journey: 1786-1788 (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This has long been my favorite work by Goethe. It is very readable, which most people don't expect from Goethe, connecting him to his poetry and to Faust, etc. But the book reveals so much about him (the reader gets a sense that the man knows he will be evaluated by people hundreds of years hence) and it also leaves so much to the imagination. I can't recommend this book more highly. It contains the musings of a brilliant human being and is a singular travelogue of Italy.