Record Number: 18148

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I would have answered your letter sooner but for a long series of movements and countermovements I have had to execute. I also wished to read Goethe's book, before determining on your proposal with regard to it. This I have at length done: I find it will not answer. The work is incomplete, the first volume only having yet appeared; and it consists of a series of fragments, individually beautiful, but quite disjointed, and in their present state scarcely intelligible.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 29 Jul 1824 and 14 Aug 1824

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Birmingham

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Thomas Carlyle

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

4 Dec 1824

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer / Academic

Religion:

Lapsed Calvinist

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Title:

Meister Wilhelm's Wanderjahre (first volume)

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: BookManuscript: Letter

Publication Details

first volume - originally published 1821

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

18148

Source:

Print

Author:

Thomas Carlyle

Editor:

C R Sanders

Title:

The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle

Place of Publication:

Durham, North Carolina

Date of Publication:

1970

Vol:

3

Page:

136

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Thomas Carlyle, C R Sanders (ed.), The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, (Durham, North Carolina, 1970), 3, p. 136, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=18148, accessed: 15 March 2025

---

Additional Comments:

Taken from letter from TC to George Boyd dated 14 August 1824, written at Birmingham. Pages 136-137 in this edition. Date range based on previous reference in a letter to John Taylor dated 29 July 1824 (p.117 in this edition) where he mentions receiving his copy of the book that day (RED id 18129).