Conversations with Goethe

Be transported to another, impossibly cultured and civilised time - a cheering respite from the terrors of our own

Rob Doyle, Observer

The greatest German book of the nineteenth century

Nietzsche

Conversations with Goethe, a record of discussions over the final nine years of Goethe's life that was published four years after his death, offers a portrait of the artist as sage. Nietzsche called it "the best German book there is". In Allan Bunden's new translation - the first for 150 years - we see Eckermann's dependence on and awe of his employer, but we are also allowed to eavesdrop on Goethe's prolific mind whirring away

Ian Bostridge, Financial Times

Revisit the musings of the greatest writer in the German language ... A new edition of Conversations with Goethe attests to the genius and charisma of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, venerated as the godfather of German literature ... From 1823 until Goethe's death in 1832, his devoted disciple, Johann Peter Eckermann, transcribed the thoughts of the author and close-up observation of his idol's habits, quirks and deeds ... Allan Blunden's companionable new version lets readers grasp not just the mental might of the sage of Weimar, but his charisma ... Goethe's talk roams with wit, charm and hard-headed sense across literature, art, nature, science and statecraft ... He has his head in the heavens but his feet on the ground; he loves gardens, picnics, birds and mountains-and takes up archery, aged 75, like an excited child ... The Conversations help Anglophone readers understand why Goethe stays on his pedestal

Economist

The book intersperses minor episodes from Goethe's daily life with preposterously insightful comments on the nature of ethics, painting, ambition, music, theater, poetry and criticism. One moment the author is advancing a proto-"Anxiety of Influence" theory; next he's griping about tacky interior design trends. We receive all of this through the unobtrusive medium of Eckermann, who shapes and edits his raw material in the manner of a reality TV producer - if reality TV shows were about geniuses instead of morons!

Molly Young, New York Times