GOETHE AND BYRON. By J. G. Robertson. (English Goethe Society,
3 Steele's Road, N.W. 3. 10s. 6d.) PROFESSOR ROBERTSON is our leading authority on German literature, beside being a specialist of European reputation in the study of comparative literature. The English Goethe Society is therefore to be congratulated on this masterly study :which marshals all that is known of the relations between 'Byron and Goethe. They never met, but German literature received a new impetus from Byron's " boundless genius." Goethe was touched by Byron's homage, although the English I poet knew very little German, and the Faust which in its first part moved Byron to admiration and imitation contained in its 'second part the figure of Hyperion, the mysterious child of Faust and Helena, intended to represent Byron. The volume is embellished by reproductions of the busts and other por- traits of Byron once in the possession of Goethe.
Previous page
