Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-07-22
NATIONAL NTELLIGENER.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

NOVELS TALES, by GorrHE. Elective Antics The
Sorrows Of Werther, SC. London: H. G. BIN; 1854
This book does not furnish us with ery good
text on which to expatiate in praise of Il" many
sided" genius of Germany. Not to be an amirer Of
Goethe would be, we opine, to write ourseies down
incontinenty among the critical incapabls who
came in for SO large share Of Goethe's cotemptu-
Gus depreciation during the prevalence Of is auto
cracy in the German literary world. We ave on
more occasions than one, for the sake of or own
credit borne feeble testimony to the woderful
abilities and talents of this great unapproachble in
Teutonc authorship. We are not, we trust, Wholly
insensible to the charms Of his gelieJtes Deuh we
stand in due awe before the gigantic shadowof his
fame; we acknowledge the matchless richness of an
intellect which no literary profusion seemed capa-
Die OF exhausting; and, SO tar we have bee able
with our short line and empty bucket have soght
draw water from the deep wells of his poesy Aid yet
to shame be it confessed have no ambition to be
classed among the adorng Ghebers who have worspped
this sun Of the German literary armament until their
eyes have been blinded to his spots by the excess If his
light We know it is considered very captious t COM
plain Of spots in but if these psaeu are SC huge
and sombre as occasionally to make the light tina is in
m orb darkness, we certainly not required deny
the reality of such " dim eclipse"
Goethes genius despite Of its original brightness
sometimes shorn of its beams" There are obscure
in the great German illustration which all of HIS
mentators and admirers been able to clear
with their twinkng flashlights and the pother which they
have raised about Goethes dark sayings reminds al
ways Of African village beating tin pans and kettle
drums whenever the sun is eclipsed.
The works of Goethe comprised in the present volume
read in the preface entirely translatons,
made expressly for the series Of German Classical
Works" which find their place from time to time in
Bohns Standard Library" The Sorrows of Werther"
it seems, Notwithstanding the great popularity of that
lachrymose volume have been rendered into Eng
lsh directly from the German Ourgrandmohers will be
Borry learn that the dear book which in their
young days they peaked and pinned and shed delicious
tears was after all spurious article having been done
into English from diluted edition in the French nso-
much that this translation Of translation is pronounced
by the editor Of the present volume but faint and
garbled version Of the original to be compared sup
pose with champagne in decanters Milton in Monsieur
Deilles rhymes If there in tue Sorrows Of Werher
they recorded in the original tone Of strength
and sarcastic emphasis" intermingled with touches Of
painful thought and gnpses Of philosophy deep it
is bitter it is surely great pity that the English public
should have found out before the book itself had
become obsolete and the Sorrows Of Werher had been
thrown into the shade by the Sorrows of Uncle Tom
The Elective Afnities," we further informed,
has been executed by gentleman well known in the
literary world ~ho does not Uish his to appear All
who have read the WaleerWandtschaen in the original
will be surprised that any decent Engishman who has
not applied for divorce from his wife, who yet
convicted of bigamy should "not wish his to ap
pear the translator of that treatise though they
be surprised that who has modesty enough to be
ashamed of literary job should hire himself for the
performance Of any publishers dirty work.
We need not inform readers that this compilation
of German Tales comprises the quntessence of German
sentmentasm distilled by the hand of Goethe
We suppose this instament of his sentimental prose will
be followed by similar instament Of his sentimen
tnl poetry, in which, doubtless the Clavgo Stella"
and Geschwisern will occupy the first place. all exc
cuted by another gentleman g who dnsa wsh his
name to appear" Indeed think it is pity that Mr.
Bonn has not procured new trensatons Of those dra
and had them bound up with the present collection
The book would then have furnished with an ample
theme for discussing the phenomenon Of German senti
mentalsm in its distinctive phases and its highest
Developments.
German literature with all its boasted originality, isa
literature which, in all its departments, has received its
first breath from the spirit Of imitation This know
general charge which may be deemed to lie against the
eratures Of all the modern nations the roots of which
are planted by the side Of those ng ntes which first
walton is especially applicable to the Of them
all that Of Germany and indeed the fact is OF
authenticated and explained by referring it, newt
able consequence to the regency itself German culture
That the literature Of Germany should be preemineny
original was simply impossible from the force of circum
stances and from the very Of its evolution and
that it has become pre-emnenty literature Of refine
mens and distractions is also nothing than the
cessary result Of its date in time and it's place in history
The sentimental nook in this refining literature is that
which to-day we propose to pass in hurried review
And France, might be sure at once, the foyer
from which German sentmentalism has been derived;
that France which the Of such
Maupertius and Dderot of Helvetius and Crebon the
younger Of Rousseau " the inmitabe," and host Of
such small fry the Doras and Prons and Moncris of
brilliant but infamous in French history the
when La Resae took the place Of the brevary, when
the Sophia in French taught quite different morality
from Cowpers "Sopha" in English; when the Nouuele
Heioise put under the pillow of each sleeper
the last book to be read by night and the first be
read by day the era when paeness became fashionable
30 that peasant girls painted themselves white and Pari
sian egans starved themselves thin and drank vinegar
In order look like the divine Julie of Jean JACQUES
These were the who in France developed every pos
sible phase Of the Satanic Literature" and who have
bequeathed posterty the heritage Of such "rabbls
rout Of authors Paul de Kock Eugene Sue and Geo.
Sand In those days the learned dispositions Of Hell
vetius and sometimes Of even Button interarded
with yoluptuous comments in order to give them spice
of pquancy and air Of gentility insomuch that the