VOLUME II JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE THE GERMAN CLASSICS MASTERPIECES OF GERMAN LITERATURE TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH IN TWENTY VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED 1914 VOLUME II CONTENTS OF VOLUME II INTRODUCTION TO THE ELECTIVE AFFINITIES. By Calvin Thomas THE ELECTIVE AFFINITIES. Translated by James Anthony Froude and R. Dillon Boylan SHAKESPEARE AND AGAIN SHAKESPEARE. Translated by Julia Franklin ORATION ON WIELAND. Translated by Louis H. Gray THE PEDAGOGIC PROVINCE (from "Wilhelm Meister's Travels"). Translated by R. Dillon Boylan WINCKELMANN AND HIS AGE. Translated by George Krielin MAXIMS AND REFLECTIONS. Translated by Bailey Saunders ECKERMANN'S CONVERSATION WITH GOETHE. Translated by John Oxenford GOETHE'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT AND HIS WIFE. Translated by Louis H. Gray GOETHE'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH K. F. ZELTER. Translated by Frances H. King ILLUSTRATIONS--VOLUME II Capri Edward reading aloud to Charlotte and the Captain Charlotte receives Ottilie. By P. Grotjohann Edward and Ottilie. By P. Grotjohann Edward, Charlotte, Ottilie and the Captain discuss the new plan of the house. By Franz Simm Ottilie examines Edward's Presents. By P Grotjohann Luciana posing as Queen Artemisia. By P. Grotjohann Ottilie. By Wilhelm von Kaulbach The Old Theatre, Weimar. By Peter Woltze Martin Wieland. By E. Hader Princess Amalia Winckelmann Weimar seen from the North Goethe and his Secretary. By Johann Josef Schmeller Goethe's Study The Garden at Goethe's City House, Weimar. By Peter Woltze Schiller's Garden House at Jena. Drawing by Goethe The float at Jena. Drawing by Goethe View into the Saale Valley near Jena. Drawing by Goethe K.F. Zelter INTRODUCTION TO THE ELECTIVE AFFINITIES In the spring of the year 1807 Goethe began work on the second part of _Wilhelm Meister_. He had no very definite plot in view, but proposed to make room for a number of short stories, all relating to the subject of renunciation, which was to be the central theme of the _Wanderjahre_. In the course of the summer, while he was taking the waters at Karlsbad, two or three of the stories were written. The following spring he set about elaborating another tale of renunciation, the idea of which had occurred to him some time before. But somehow it refused to be confined within the limits of a novelette. As he proceeded the matter grew apace, until it finally developed into the novel which was given to the world in 1809 under the title of _The Elective Affinities_.