The Life and Works of Goethe 1965 Edition
THE LIFE AND WORKS OF GOETHE — G. H. LEWES
Everyman’s Library No. 269 | 1965 Reprint | With Introduction by Havelock Ellis
A handsome vintage Everyman’s Library edition of The Life and Works of Goethe by George Henry Lewes, with an introduction by the influential English writer and critic Havelock Ellis. This particular copy was reprinted in 1965 by J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, and belongs to the celebrated Everyman’s Library series as No. 269.
Lewes’s biography of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was originally published in 1855 and became one of the important English-language studies of the great German writer and thinker. Lewes researched the biography during a journey to Germany in 1854 and drew upon letters and recollections from people close to Goethe.
About the Book
Goethe was far more than the author of Faust. Poet, novelist, dramatist, philosopher and scientist, he became one of the defining figures of European intellectual and literary culture.
Lewes approaches Goethe through both his life and his work, placing his writings within the personal relationships, intellectual movements and cultural world that shaped him. The result is part biography, part literary history and part portrait of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European thought.
The work was first published in 1855; J. M. Dent subsequently issued it in Everyman’s Library in 1908.
This Particular Edition
The copyright page of the photographed copy states:
“First included in Everyman’s Library 1908 — Last reprinted 1965.”
This therefore appears to be the 1965 Everyman’s Library reprint, rather than a first edition. Contemporary listings for this edition describe it as a 593-page hardcover with dust jacket, consistent with the copy shown here.
The survival of its distinctive purple Everyman’s Library dust jacket is particularly appealing. The front carries the series motto:
“Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy guide, in thy most need to go by thy side.”
Book Details
Title: The Life and Works of Goethe
Author: George Henry Lewes (G. H. Lewes)
Introduction: Havelock Ellis
Subject: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Series: Everyman’s Library
Series Number: No. 269
Publisher: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
Place of Publication: London
US Publisher: E. P. Dutton & Co., New York
Everyman’s Library first issue: 1908
This printing: 1965 reprint
Format: Hardcover with original-style dust jacket
Pagination: Approx. 593 pages
Language: English
Genre: Biography / Literary History / European Literature
Printed: Great Britain
Condition
Vintage pre-owned condition. The purple dust jacket shows noticeable age-related wear, particularly rubbing, creasing and small losses around the edges and corners. There is also some fading and marking consistent with a book of this age. The interior displays age toning but appears clean and readable in the photographs.
Importantly for a vintage Everyman’s Library copy, the dust jacket is still present, adding considerably to its visual and collectible appeal. Please refer to the photographs as part of the condition description.
Collectors’ Interest
Everyman’s Library was conceived as an affordable library of important works from world literature and thought, and vintage volumes have become attractive objects for collectors because of their compact format, traditional bindings and distinctive numbered series.
This copy has several points of interest: the Everyman’s Library No. 269 designation, its 1965 printing, Havelock Ellis’s introduction and the surviving period dust jacket. It would sit beautifully in a collection of Everyman’s Library editions, Goethe, European literature or vintage literary biography.
Why We Love It at Owl Books
There is something especially charming about an old Everyman’s Library volume. These books were designed not simply to decorate a shelf, but to place some of the world’s most important writing within reach of ordinary readers.
Lewes’s portrait of Goethe makes this an intriguing book for anyone interested in classic literature, literary history, philosophy and the intellectual life of Europe. The beautifully aged purple jacket gives this particular copy all the character we look for in a vintage book.