WorkJohann Wolfgang von Goethe

“[Essay on Marc Antonio's engravings after Raphael, on drapery]”

[Essay on Marc Antonio's engravings after Raphael, on drapery] Inferred

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) · 1795–96

TranslatedExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1832–1849

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Letters • Books • Essays • Journals • Manuscripts

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed9records

IV. Transcendentalist13records

V. New York6records

VI. Europe7records

✦. Memoirs (1852)1record

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1832—

Letter to James F. Clarke

analyzed · read2 selected passages

“I have felt that so much lately in reading his lyrick poems- I am enchanted while I read; he comprehends every feeling I ever had so perfectly, expresses it so beautifully...”

Inferred Fuller explicitly states she is "reading his lyrick poems" and "persevere in reading the great sage some part of every day," a clear active-reading signal with sustained engagement; she describes shutting the book and feeling she has "lost my personal identity," with the title inferred as the lyric poetry section of Goethe's collected works.

“-Then it is a relief after feeling the immense superiority of Goethe.”

Inferred Fuller refers to Goethe as "the great sage" whose comprehensiveness overwhelms her after reading Novalis, contrasting their approaches without naming a specific work; context from another letter suggests she was reading Goethe's lyric poems.

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

1832—

Letter to Unknown (probably James F. Clarke)

p174

read

“Consider it, I pray you, as the 'nearest duty' to answer my questions”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Hudspeth identified Fuller's phrase "nearest duty" to Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, where a wandering pedestrian tells Wilhelm "Das Sicherste bleibt immer, nur das Nächste zu tun," rendered by Carlyle as "The safe plan is, always simply to do the task that lies nearest us" in Carlyle's ranslation.

1833—

Letter to James F. Clarke

analyzed · read

“Goethe himself is the highest instance how consistent are the utmost delicacy of definition and individuality of expression with perfect simplicity of style.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

Inferred Fuller invokes Goethe as "the highest instance how consistent are the utmost delicacy of definition and individuality of expression with perfect simplicity of style," presenting a critical literary judgment based on her extensive reading though no specific work is named.

1833—

General Reading Notes

p. 2

mentionedManuscript page

“A Scott, a Goethe would neither talk out nor write down the reflections suggested by what the day had brought, they would be transfused into new works.”

Fuller, Margaret. "General Reading Notes." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

1833—

Letter to James F. Clarke

p195

analyzed · read

“What fault do you find with Goethe's lyricks— Each one gives a mood of the mind with marked expression and intense and beautiful language— Does not the perusal of them rouse your imagination and make you think or in some cases rouse you to unexpected passion— What would you have?”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Vol. I: 1817-1838. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

1834—

Letter to Amelia Greenwood

p202

read

“Goethe!! says live a ] retired as we will we must soon become either d[ ] creditors.”

Fuller, Margaret. "To Amelia Greenwood, 10 March 1834." In The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. I: 1817–1838, edited by Robert N. Hudspeth, 201–202. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

1834—

Letter to Almira P. Barlow

p209

analyzed · read

“why cannot I value thee, and make thee my peculiar household deity, as did our Master, Goethe? I suppose I could, if I had the same reproducing power”

Fuller, Margaret. "To Almira P. Barlow, 6 October 1834." In The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. I: 1817–1838, edited by Robert N. Hudspeth, 209–210. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Fuller invokes Goethe as 'our Master' who made Experience his 'household deity' and possessed 'reproducing power,' analyzing Goethe's creative principle without naming a specific work. She contrasts her own condition unfavorably with Goethe's capacity to transform experience into art, drawing on her extensive prior reading of Goethe's works.

1834—

Letter to Amelia

readManuscript page

“The hist and critical works of Goethe and Schiller, and the outlines of history of our own country.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Letter to Amelia." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086.

1834—

Fragmentary Reading Notes and Autobiographical Reflections

p5, p7, p8–p9, p12–p17

analyzed · quoted · readManuscript page

“23d. Goethe's six faults of amateurs… I find nothing in his works as yet on the subject of Architecture… Goethe's notes.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Fragmentary Reading Notes and Autobiographical Reflections." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

1835—

Letter to (?)

p218

read

“Are you vexed by my keeping the six volumes of your Goethe?”

Fuller, Margaret. "To [?], ca. February 1835." In The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. I: 1817–1838, edited by Robert N. Hudspeth, 218–219. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred The specific titles are unnamed; the "six volumes" likely refers to a multi-volume collected works or selection available in the 1830s.

1836—

Letter to James F. Clarke

p244

analyzed · read2 selected passages

“I am shocked to perceive you think I am writing the life of Goethe. No, indeed! I shall need a great deal of preparation before I shall have it clear in my head.”

Inferred Fuller is engaged in active biographical research on Goethe's life and works, noting that she has "taken a great many notes" and lacks materials for a ten-year period of his life. She discusses both her own project and her consultation of Goethe's works themselves, referencing competing interpretations of Goethe by Carlyle and Clarke.

“Of course, my impressions of Goethe's works cannot be influenced by information I get about his life but, as to this latter, I suspect I must have been hasty in my inferences.”

Inferred Fuller explicitly refers to "Goethe's works" in the plural as the foundation of her impressions about his life and character, particularly regarding his relationship with Christiane Vulpius.

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

1837—

Letter to Frederic H. Hedge

p292

analyzed · read

“Will you, Henry, can you tell me all the scandal about Goethe—about his marriage and so forth?”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Fuller states she has requested books about Goethe to inform her research on his life and work, particularly regarding biographical details about his marriage, but names no specific titles in this passage.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p79

analyzed · quoted · read4 selected passages

“These words of Goethe, which I have placed among the mottos at the beginning of this chapter, were written by Margaret on the first page of a richly gilt and bound blank book, which she gave to me, in 1832, for a private journal.”

Inferred This entry documents a quotation by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, transcribed by Margaret Fuller into a gilt-bound journal gifted to James Freeman Clarke in 1832. While the specific text of the quotation is not provided, Clarke's editorial notes indicate that Fuller chose these "words of Goethe" as a motto for the journal.

This entry documents a quotation by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, transcribed by Margaret Fuller into a gilt-bound journal gifted to James Freeman Clarke in 1832.

“I solace my soul with Goethe, and follow his guidance into realms of the 'Wahren, Guten, und Schonen.”

Inferred In an April 1833 letter, Margaret Fuller expresses her deep personal connection to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's writings, stating, "I solace my soul with Goethe, and follow his guidance into realms of the 'Wahren, Guten, und Schonen.'" While no specific work is named, Fuller's invocation of these German terms for Truth, Goodness, and Beauty suggests a broad engagement with Goethe's philosophical and aesthetic ideals as a source of comfort and inspiration.

“enjoyed with him his proud reception... of Goethe.”

Inferred In this passage, Margaret Fuller's engagement with the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is noted through an account of her shared reading with a contemporary. Emerson highlights Goethe as a figure Fuller explicitly valued, placing him alongside Dante and Petrarch as poets who provided "high portraits" that gratified her search for kindred spirits.

“In the winter of 1843-4, the general subject was "Education." Culture, Ignorance, Vanity, Prudence, Patience, and Health, appear to have been the titles of conversations, in which wide digressions, and much autobiographic illustration, with episodes on War, Bonaparte, Goethe, and Spinoza, were mingled.”

Inferred In the winter of 1843-4, Margaret Fuller's conversations explored the broad theme of Education, incorporating discussions on figures such as Goethe. While no specific work by Goethe is named in the surviving record, his writings and life were evidently a subject of engagement within Fuller's intellectual circle.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.