'Not to know Goethe,' A.W. Schlegel wrote poetically, 'is to be a Goth.' Nicholas Boyle begins the preface to Volume One of his biography of the great man by stating, altogether correctly alas, that more must be known, 'or at any rate there must be more to know', about him than about almost any other human being. A shilling life could never have given you all the facts about Goethe. (Though there must have been a time when G.H. Lewes's Life of 1855 wouldn't have cost much more.) On the other hand, £25 (though a distinctly modest price for a book of this size) may seem a bit steep for half of the facts.

LRB 9 May 1991 | PDF Download