Points of View [antikvár]

The Three Novels of a Poet I think it only fair to tell the reader ofthe following pages why, at this time of day, when surely everything that could be said about Goethe has long since been said, I should write an essay on his novels. It has given me pleasure to do so, and if there is a better reason for writing anything I have yet to hear of it. From my earliest years I could speak English and French; as a child, French better than English; and when still in my teens I spent a year in Germany and attended lectures at the University. I learnt German. I had read poetry at school, but as a task. Goethe's lyrics are the first poems I read for my pleasure and it may be that is why, when I read them now, I read them with the same rapture as I did more than half a century ago. I read not only with my eyes, but with the recollections of my youth, Heidelberg with its old streets, the ancient castle, the wooded walk to the top of the Konigstuhl and the beautiful plain ofthe Neckar spread out before one, the skating in winter, the canoeing in summer, the interminable conversations about art and literature, free will and determinism; and first love, though, heaven knows, I never knew it for what it was. It was during this period that I read the novels of Goethe. I