ABSTRACT
It was Goethe who first noted the affinity of the French Romanticism of the 1820s to the Storm and Stress. Eckermann’s Gespräche mit Goethe, particularly in the years 1825—30, are studded with references to French literature. Goethe was widely read in the newer as well as in the Classical authors: the names of Diderot, Voltaire, Béranger, Chateaubriand, Hugo, Delille, Lamartine, Vigny and Mérimée all recur with some frequency. And even in relation to the most recent writing Goethe’s judgements were extremely astute; as early as 4 January 1827, for instance, he was full of praise for the vivid pictures in Hugo’s lyric poetry, whereas he directed the severest criticism at Notre-Dame de Paris (27 June 1831). According to Eckermann’s testimony (6 March 1830), Goethe was also reading Le Globe and Le Temps ‘seit mehreren Monaten mit dem grössten Eifer’ (‘for the past few months with the greatest avidity’). The combination of this good acquaintance with French literature together with his detachment as a foreign observer — not to mention his shrewdness and sagacity — gave Goethe an uncanny insight into the true direction and underlying implications of contemporary developments in France. From his vantage-point in Weimar, he was able to place the immediate surface controversies of Paris in their true perspective and to interpret their long-term significance. On 21 January 1827 Eckermann records the following comment:
‘Die Franzosen’, sagte er, ‘machen sich heraus, und es ist der Mühe wert, dass man sich nach ihnen umsieht. Ich bin mit Fleiss darüber her, mir von dem Stande der neuesten französischen Literatur einen Begriff zu machen und, wenn es glückt, mich auch darüber auszusprechen. Es ist mir höchst interessant zu sehen, dass diejenigen Elemente bei ihnen erst anfangen zu wirken, die bei uns längst durchgegangen sind.’
(‘The French’, he said, ‘are coming on and it is worth taking the trouble to find out about them. I am assidiously trying to gain insight into the most recent French literature and, if all goes well, to express my views. It fascinates me to note that certain elements, which have long since passed through and into our literature, are only just beginning to come into effect in theirs.’)
