This is the first complete biographical and critical study of Karl Philipp Moritz (1756–93), German novelist, teacher, journalist, and philologist. His psychological novel, Anton Reiser, replete with insights into the sociological and psychological life of the time, was one of the most important eighteenth-century German novels. Moritz was in close touch with most of the major intellectual currents in Weimar and Berlin—from aesthetics and linguistics on the one hand to pietistical...

The book Nietzsche called "the most personal of all my books." It was here that he first proclaimed the death of God—to which a large part of the book is devoted—and his doctrine of the eternal recurrence.Walter Kaufmann's commentary, with its many quotations from previously untranslated letters, brings to life Nietzsche as a human being and illuminates his philosophy. The book contains some of Nietzsche's most sustained discussions of art and morality, knowledge a...

The first truly popular biography of the influential twentieth-century mystic and educator who-while widely known for founding the Waldorf schools and other educational and humanitarian movements-remains a mystery to many who benefit from his ideas.People everywhere have heard of Waldorf schools, Biodynamic farming, Camphill Villages, and other innovations of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Indeed, Steiner—as an architect, artist, teacher, and agriculturalist—r...

Alive, fresh, and stimulating, the theme of The Double comprises the issues of identity, narcissism, and the fear of death — actually the core of human existence. Rank’s book is primarily a study of the double as it appeared in striking examples in German, French, Russian, English, and American literature from Goethe to Oscar Wilde.Originally published in 1971.A UNC Press Enduring Edition — UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make av...

The work of German cultural theorist and art historian Aby Warburg (1866–1929) has had a lasting effect on how we think about images. This book is the first in English to focus on his last project, the encyclopedic Atlas of Images: Mnemosyne. Begun in earnest in 1927, and left unfinished at the time of Warburg's death in 1929, the Atlas consisted of sixty-three large wooden panels covered with black cloth. On these panels Warburg carefully, intuitively arranged some thousa...

In 1878 the Victorian critic Matthew Arnold wrote: 'Goethe is the greatest poet of modern times... because having a very considerable gift for poetry, he was at the same time, in the width, depth, and richness of his criticism of life, by far our greatest modern man.' In this Very Short Introduction Ritchie Robertson covers the life and work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832): scientist, administrator, artist, art critic and supreme literary writer in a vast variety of genr...

Much has been written by students of spiritual science on The Philosophy of Freedom, but the advantage of discovering what the author himself had to say about this most important and seminal work should be obvious. Not only were the words of the text chosen most carefully, but also its very structure was intended to become a powerful inner experience for the careful reader. In a sense, all of the works that flowed from Rudolf Steiner in the following years were to elaborate on this great work...

Rudolf Steiner seldom spoke of himself in a personal way, but in his Autobiography we are offered a rare glimpse into some of the most intimate aspects of his inner life, his personal relationships, and significant events that helped to shape the philosopher, seer, and teacher he became.This edition restores the original format of seventy chapters, just as they were written for the Goetheanum weekly newsletter. This autobiography is not merely a narrative of Rudolf Steiner's successes and fai...

Often regarded as the greatest German poet of the twentieth century, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) remains one of the most influential figures of European modernism. In this Companion, leading scholars offer informative and thought-provoking essays on his life and social context, his correspondence, all his major collections of poetry including most famously the Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus, and his seminal novel of Modernist anxiety, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Rilke's...

For Peter Selg, if Anthroposophy to be a living reality, we must learn to know and love Rudolf Steiner as he appeared to those who knew and loved him: namely, as a spiritual teacher. To help us do so, he gathered recollections of those of who knew Steiner personallyhistorical witnesses to the living phenomenon of the figure of the teacher. It is his hope that these firsthand accounts will help readers see and experience the amazing, ever-mysterious person that Rudolf Steiner wasa dynamic, ene...

Key dimensions of Thomas Mann's writing and life are explored in this collection of specially commissioned essays. In addition to introductory chapters on all the main works of fiction, the essays and diaries, there are four chapters examining Mann's oeuvre in relation to major themes. These thematic explorations include his position as a realistic writer concerned with the history of his own times and as a commentator on German and American politics; his controversial reputation as an int...

Short-listed for the Tractatus Essay Prize, an examination of the innovative strategies Arendt used to achieve intellectual freedomAfter observing the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt articulated her controversial concept of the “banality of evil,” thereby posing one of the most chilling and divisive moral questions of the twentieth century: How can genocidal acts be carried out by non-psychopathic people? By revealing the full complexity of the trial with re...