WorkJohann Wolfgang von Goethe
Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre [Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years] (1821; expanded 2nd ed. 1829) Inferred
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) · 1821; revised 1829
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Documented 1834–1843
Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Letters • Books • Notebooks • Manuscripts
Selected engagements, in chronological order.
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 →
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had this work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
“I have realized in these last days the thought of Goethe,— "He who would in loneliness live, ah! he is soon alone. Each one loves, each one lives, and leaves him to his pain.”
Mem-2 Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli · Rieti, July 11, 1848 (letter heading)
Two-sentence lyric quotation reproduced verbatim from Goethe/Wilhelm Meister, reading as a sustained stanza-length passage.
“Mr.— says the Wanderjahre is "wise." It must be presumed so; and yet one is not satisfied.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Vol. I: 1817-1838. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
“how fine the remark of our present subject: "Courage and modesty are virtues which every sort of society reveres, because they are virtues which cannot be counterfeited; also, they are known by the same hue." [...] "Mut und Bescheidenheit sind die unzweideutigsten Tugenden; denn sie sind von der Art, dass Heuchelei sie nicht nachahmen kann.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Inferred Hudspeth identified this as from "Maximen and Reflexionen aus Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahren," specifically from the "Aus Makariens Archiv" section, and Fuller quotes it in support of her own biographical interpretation of Goethe's moral character.
“Read also some descriptions of pictures, and was led to give an account of Makaria and his connexion with the solar system!”
Fuller, Margaret. "Records of Conversations on Goethe and Art." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Inferred Fuller gives 'an account of Makaria and his connexion with the solar system' — referring to the character Makarie in Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (Wanderjahre, 1821/1829). Fuller says 'his' but the character is female. Title inferred from the distinctive character.
“Not without reason was it that Goethe limits the days of intercourse to three in the Wanderjahre.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
“Tis pity that the volumes of the Wanderjahre have not been translated entire, as well as those of the Lehrjahre [...] In the Wanderjahre we find him gradually learning the duties of citizenship [...] Werther, who must die because life was not wide enough and rich enough in love for him, ends as the Meister of the Wanderjahre, well content to be one never inadequate to the occasion, 'help-full, comfort-full.”
Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860. · p39-44
“Care is taken," I see it, "that the trees grow not up into heaven”
Inferred The maxim 'trees do not grow up into heaven' (German: 'Es ist dafür gesorgt, dass die Bäume nicht in den Himmel wachsen') is a German proverb closely associated with Goethe; it appears in Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (1821; expanded 1829) and was widely cited in the Romantic era as Goethean wisdom.
“Goethe has taken up these facts in his Wanderjahre, where he speaks of his Macaria; also, one of these persons who are compensated for bodily infirmity by a more concentrated and acute state of mind, and consequent accesses of wisdom, as being bound to a star.”
Fuller, Margaret. Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1844.
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
“I have no castle, and no natural circle, in which I might live, like the wise Makaria, observing my kindred the stars, and gradually enriching my archives.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Inferred Fuller alludes to Makaria, a saintly and star-contemplating figure in Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, who "observes her kindred the stars." Hudspeth identified this character as Hersilia's aunt.
“Thoughts of Makaria and her stellar correspondencies”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notebook 1840." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086; Box 3.
Inferred Makaria is a character exclusive to Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre; her 'stellar correspondencies' are her defining trait in that novel (Book II, ch.
“p55: '21-22-23 - Wilhelm Wanderjahre”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notes toward The Life of Goethe." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
“Tale of the new Paris the bud of which at the time of the Frederica affair the new Melusina was the flower.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Plan for a Life of Goethe." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Inferred Fuller refers to the 'new Paris' and 'new Melusina' as tales within Goethe's works; the new Paris is from Dichtung und Wahrheit; the new Melusina is from Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre. Fuller pairs 'the new Paris' (a tale Goethe tells in Dichtung und Wahrheit about his childhood imagination) with 'the new Melusina' — an inset tale in Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (1821/1829).
“the Wanderjahre is 'wise.' It must be presumed so; and yet one is not satisfied.”
“Faust, and Tasso, and Mignon, and Makaria, and Iphigenia, became irresistible names... the wise Makaria, observing my kindred the stars”
“The "Titan" of Richter, the "Wanderjahre" of Goethe, the Elena of Taylor, the pictures of Turner, had not prepared me for the visions of beauty that daily entranced the eyes and heart in those regions.”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.