Life of Johann Wolfgang Goethe. By James Sime. (Walter Scott.)—Mr.
Sime is well known as an accomplished student of German literature, although too level-headed and too Scotch to quite lose his head in raptures over it. His Life of Goethe, con- tributed to the " Great Writers Series," is, therefore, as was to be expected, a carefully written, well-arranged, sensible book. Mr. Sime does not pretend to throw fresh light on the subject, but he is clearly full of the Goethean literature of the last half-century, and he freely acknowledges his obligations to German scholars such as Dfintzer, Grimm, and Schmidt. He tells the story of Goethe's life as a poet and a man well and sympathetically, and indicates with much skill the influence of outside events, and of his own feelings and "passions" upon the character of his works. Finally, Mr. Sime's analyses of these, more particularly of "Faust," "Wilhelm Meister," and "The Sorrows of Werther," are excellent. He also shows much judgment in dealing with the delicate and complicated question of Goethe's personal character. Although no mere blind hero-worshipper, he yet passes too lightly over, or perhaps takes too exclusively Goethean a view of, the poet's dealings with women. He does not quite seem to see that, for example, in the case of Frederika Brion, Goethe was guilty of selfishness in declining marriage after obtaining possession of the poor girl's heart, because marriage would have interfered with his freedom. "His ultimate decision was right," says Mr. Sime, "for he had not reached a' stage at which a happy marriage was possible." This is mere conjecture on Mr. Sime's part. It is permissible to believe that Goethe would have been happier with Frederika Brion than with Christiana Vulpius, and that, morally, he would have been a greater man if he had had a genuine struggle in youth with the res angusta domi. In any case, love and honour bade Goethe marry Frederika at all hazards. Apart from this difficult matter, Mr. Sime's book deserves hearty commendation as a conscientious piece of high-class compilation, as, indeed, perhaps the best brief biography of Goethe in the English language. Though not a profound thinker, Mr. Sime is a scholarly critic.
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