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Castle of Weimar

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center of Goethe's social and work life

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the duke had brought Goethe to Weimar as a budding writer

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Goethe began to assume more and more public functions

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theater

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founded an amateur theatrical troupe and turned it into a professional theater company

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Minister of Finance

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sent on diplomatic missions

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Goethe's garden house

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here 39-year-old Goethe met 23-year-old Christian Vulpius

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he had just returned from Rome

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vivacious

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had little formal schooling

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came from a working class background

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when the relationship was made public, the court was scandalized

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the Duke, to which Goethe owed so much, essentially banished him to live in this garden house

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lived there for three years before he was allowed to move back to town

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it was here that he spent wonderful years with Christiane

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here their only son to survive was born

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Goethe wrote the Roman Elegies here

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a homage both to their relationship and to Rome

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Johann Peter Eckermann (1792-1854)

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grew up in poverty

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studied law at the Universtiy of Göttingen

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wrote literature and poetry instead

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a friend recommended he read Goethe

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dropped out of Law School to write a book about Goethe

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in 1832 sent his manuscript to Goethe entitled "Reflections on Poetry"

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Goethe was 73

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Eckermann did not wait passively for a response

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walked to Weimar for two weeks

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spent the rest of his life

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wrote down his conversations with Goethe

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Goethe was now living in a large house with many rooms

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Goethe was very welcoming

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Eckermann was looking for a master of sorts, and Goethe was looking for an all-purpose assistant

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spent 9 years with Goethe before Goethe died

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helped him publicized his terms

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free of charge

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did tutoring to earn enough money to pay for food and rent

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never asked Goethe for a proper salary

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he was happy to be making acquaintance of distinguished writers and intellectuals in Goethe's circle

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Conversations with Goethe

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Eckermann realized Goethe was someone very influential

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Goethe told Eckermann to wait before publishing them

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Eckermann waited until Goethe died to publish them

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they read like interviews in which Eckermann prompts Goethe to say interesting, provocative and profound things

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Eckermann is not entirely passive in the conversations

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responds incredulously

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but mostly agreeing

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sometimes puzzled and asks follow-up questions

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Goethe talked of the influence of Samuel Richardson on his work

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Goethe said he had read a Chinese novel

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Eckermann said it must have been very strange

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Goethe said it was much less strange than one thinks

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they were more decent than the French

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Eckermann said that this Chinese novel must be unusual, the exception to the rule

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Goethe said nothing could be further from the truth

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the Chinese have thousands of them and them, and they had them when our ancestors were still living in trees

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the time has come for the epoch of world literature, and everyone must seek to accelerate it