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  1. Home
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  3. Goethe the Alchemist
  • Cited by 2
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
November 2010
Print publication year:
2010
First published in:
1952
Online ISBN:
9780511710285
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511710285
Subjects:
Literature, Area Studies, English Literature: General Interest, European Literature, European Studies, Chemistry, Chemistry: General Interest
Series:
Cambridge Library Collection - Literary Studies
Information

Book description

In his autobiography, Goethe half-apologetically admits the youthful enthusiasm he experienced for alchemical and mystical readings: Georg von Welling's obscure Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum et Theosophicum and the anonymously published Aurea Catena Homeri, as well as works by Paracelsus, Basilis Valentinus and van Helmont. Originally published in 1952, this study shows how the symbols and concepts of alchemy played a key role in the genesis of Goethe's later works, both scientific and literary. Author of, among other books on German literature, Goethe: A Critical Introduction (1967) and An Introduction to German Poetry (1965), Ronald D. Gray details Goethe's alchemical readings, and shows how these influences were processed and transformed into a unique blend of scientific and poetic accounts of reality. Unprecedented in its approach, this study will be of interest to readers of German literature, as well as to anyone interested in the history and evolution of mysticism.

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