Matthew Bell

... and used it in the 'Von deutscher Baukunst' essay.

And then there’s also Batteux’s theory of ‘la belle nature’, which has the artist’s subjectivity reorganizing impressions into beautiful simulacra of the ways things are. Goethe liked Batteux’s theory a lot (41-42, 73-78) ...

Before his friendship with Schiller, Goethe had already developed this idea in his 1789 essay ‘Simple Imitation of Nature, Manner, Style’ (224).

Actually this is more Schiller than Goethe, and it derives from Schiller’s reading of Kant. The work of the artist is to imbue matter with form, in the same way as nature does.

But obvs this has nothing to do with art until Goethe and Schiller became friends in 1794 and developed a new doctrine of beauty, according to which perfection in art consists in a perfect balance of form and content (309-16).

Another of the Goethean ideas Ruskin could be referring to is the (also Aristotelian) idea that matter is infused with a shaping idea or form (hylomorphism). Goethe reached this view during his geological studies in the early 1780s. (See Goethe: A Life in Ideas, 168-70, 651-55).

Yes, that's a Goethe on Gothic architecture.

Here. It would help to know who is ascribing this view to Goethe and where?

Quite a surprise how NZ bossed the game.

= Rowan Williams

Today’s Observer
@princetonupress.bsky.social

That was looking so good for Pakistan until the last few overs. 6 wickets in 12 balls! Tragi-comical.

@princetonupress.bsky.social

Goethe the radical reactionary | The Observer Matthew Bell’s Goethe: A Life in Ideas reveals a restlessly inventive thinker who admired autocrats and shunned Christianity

Excellent review by Rowan Williams in the Observer

observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Tempted to have a cheeky flutter on England to win?

Oh no, just checked the odds. Forget it.

The cover page of Matthew Bell's 'Goethe: A Life in Ideas', showing a marble bust of Goethe

The first translation of 'Goethe: A Life in Ideas' is on the horizon. Into Portuguese -- we have a publisher in Brazil!

JD Wetherspoon's assistance dog policy could be breaking the law, watchdog says The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has written to the pub chain after complaints from disabled customers.

Obvious bias from the watchdog. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

@princetonupress.bsky.social

Seen in a bookshop in Barcelona

Yes, and he also invented a whole lot more of the origin story while he was writing the novel and included it in the novel. Both can be true.

Sure, much of the Silmarillion material was written long before LotR, but much of the Second/Third Age material was written during the composition of LotR, and was included in the appendices.
Tolkien wrote the immediate back story of LotR while he was writing the novel and included it in the novel.

The back story is included in the appendices to LotR, which are part of the novel — they’re part of the (fictive) Red Book.
A lot of this back story was invented by Tolkien as he was writing LotR. For instance, he only conceived of the rings of power after he’d been working on LotR for a few months.

Just what many of us will be thinking at this time of year.

This is big. This is Bostridge.

Books of the year 2025 New Statesman writers and guests – including Jonathan Franzen, Jacqueline Rose, Marina Warner and Slavoj Žižek – choose their favourite reading this year

My 'Goethe: A Life in Ideas' is recommended as one of the New Statesman's books of 2025 by the great tenor and interpreter of German song, Ian Bostridge www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

A lone inquirer For most biographers, a paucity of source material poses formidable challenges. For the biographer endeavouring to array Goethe’s life along a coherent narrative line, it is surfeit that is daunting....

"Biographies necessarily look back in time, but the best of them invite us to see the present anew. This is surely one of the chief virtues of Matthew Bell's insightful study," says @thetls.bsky.social of Goethe: A Life in Ideas. We couldn't agree more! Read the full review here:

'Goethe’s intellectual world, it becomes clear, is both familiar to us and radically different from our own. Biographies necessarily look back in time, but the best of them invite us to see the present anew. This is surely one of the chief virtues of Matthew Bell’s insightful study.'

A lone inquirer For most biographers, a paucity of source material poses formidable challenges. For the biographer endeavouring to array Goethe’s life along a coherent narrative line, it is surfeit that is daunting. ...

Review of my 'Goethe: A Life in Ideas' by David Wellbery in the TLS: ‘[carves a path through Goethe’s life] skilfully and insightfully … rooted in meticulous historical scholarship … insightful study’ www.the-tls.com/lives/biogra...

Goethe, a man of ideas | Daniel Johnson | The Critic Magazine Goethe seemed to have lived many lives, for no man in history has shown glimpses of genius across such a wide range of human endeavour.

Think you know everything about Goethe? He was a poet, a scientist, a rebel… and a total genius. Daniel Johnson breaks it all down in The Critic. Read the review of @matthewgbell.bsky.social's book here:

Goethe, a man of ideas | Daniel Johnson | The Critic Magazine Goethe seemed to have lived many lives, for no man in history has shown glimpses of genius across such a wide range of human endeavour.

Excellent review of my ‘Goethe: A Life in Ideas’ by Daniel Johnson in The Critic thecritic.co.uk/issues/novem... “Bell’s brilliant biography does full justice to this greatest of German Dichter und Denker”