Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. THE WORKS OF JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE TRANSLATORS THOMAS CARLYLE HENRY W. LONGFELLOW SIR WALTER SCOTT BAYARD TAYLOR EDWARD CHAWNER CHAS. J. SPRAGUE LEOPOLD NOA HENRY DALE JOHN OXENFORD THEODORE MARTIN W. E. AYTOUN E. A. BOWRING A. J. W. MORRISON G. H. LEWES J. S. DWIGHT ANNA SWANWICK THE GOTTINGEN EDITION OF JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE'S WORKS IS LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND COPIES, OF WHICH THIS IS NUMBER 976 [Illustration: PICTURE OF GOETHE] 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 determine for ourselves, whether and how far such influence has been salutary, such reputation merited. That this call will one day be answered, that Goethe will be seen and judged of in his real character among us, appears certain enough. His name, long familiar everywhere, has now awakened the attention of critics in all European countries to his works: he is studied wherever true study exists: eagerly studied even in France; nay, some considerable knowledge of his nature and spiritual importance seems already to prevail there. [Footnote: Witness /Le Tasse, Drame par Duval,/ and the Criticisms on it. See also the Essays in the /Globe,/ Nos. 55, 64 (1826).]