{"product_id":"wilhelm-meisters-wanderjahre-oder-die-entsagenden","title":"The first edition of the first version of Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, from the library of Victor Lange","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre oder Die Entsagenden.\u003c\/strong\u003e Stuttgart and Tübingen, J. G. Cotta, 1821.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst edition, the first (1821) version of the novel, shorter than and distinct from the expanded text Goethe published in the \u003cem\u003eAusgabe letzter Hand\u003c\/em\u003e of 1829; with the poems and maxims on four preliminary leaves. Four unnumbered preliminary leaves and 550 pp. Small octavo (148 × 94 mm).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContemporary black half-morocco with rich Romantic-period spine gilding (very good to near-fine; internally beautiful and almost free of spotting), from the library of Victor Lange.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre\u003c\/em\u003e is not a simple sequel to the \u003cem\u003eLehrjahre\u003c\/em\u003e but something stranger and more radical. Goethe reworked and greatly expanded the novel for the \u003cem\u003eAusgabe letzter Hand\u003c\/em\u003e of 1829, so the present 1821 text is the first and shorter version. Its structure resists the expectations of the traditional novel. Novellas, tales, letters, conversations, aphorisms, songs and pedagogical fragments are assembled under a governing principle of \u003cem\u003eEntsagung\u003c\/em\u003e, renunciation. The late style abandons the developmental confidence of the \u003cem\u003eLehrjahre\u003c\/em\u003e for a more open, discontinuous vision of education, work and human limitation. Reception has always reflected that difficulty; H. R. Vaget counts it among Goethe's most advanced achievements [Vaget].\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe provenance gives the copy a particular resonance. Victor Lange (1908–1996), the Princeton Germanist who helped shape American Goethe studies and was one of the three executive editors of \u003cem\u003eGoethe: The Collected Works\u003c\/em\u003e, with Eric Blackall and Cyrus Hamlin, owned it; Princeton's departmental history names him a founding figure of its modern German department.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePROVENANCE\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVictor Lange (1908–1996), Germanist, Princeton professor, editor and translator.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Heribert Tenschert Collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eREFERENCES\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGoedeke IV\/3, 434; Hagen 425; Hirzel A 369; Meyer 1329; Kippenberg I, 402; Borst 1359.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eH. R. Vaget, in \u003cem\u003eKritisches Lexikon der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eGoethe's Collected Works\u003c\/em\u003e (Princeton); Princeton University Department of German, history of Victor Lange.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46940319416508,"sku":null,"price":5000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/Wanderjahre_Halbleder_1821-1-Photoroom.png?v=1781145841","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/wilhelm-meisters-wanderjahre-oder-die-entsagenden","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}