GOTTINGEN EDITION

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

TRUTH AND FICTION RELATING TO MY LIFE

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

TRANSLATED BY
JOHN OXENFORD

VOLUME I.

PHILADELPHIA AND CHICAGO
J. H. MOORE AND COMPANY




INTRODUCTION.

BY THOMAS CARLYLE.

It would appear that for inquirers into Foreign Literature, for all men
anxious to see and understand the European world as it lies around them,
a great problem is presented in this Goethe; a singular, highly
significant phenomenon, and now also means more or less complete for
ascertaining its significance. A man of wonderful, nay, unexampled
reputation and intellectual influence among forty millions of
reflective, serious and cultivated men, invites us to study him; and to