Alifbépé ~ ا ب پ

Goethe’s Conversations with Eckermann counted for Nietzsche as “the best German book there is” [dem besten deutschen Buche, das es gibt]. He rated Eckermann’s record of these conversations higher than Goethe’s Faust, on which Kaufmann wittily commented that fortunately, we don’t have to choose between the two - we can read both. I have read the book over three times, keep returning to certain passages in it and had always wanted to see it all online. I scanned a part of it some years ago, but then tired out. Someone had started posting the conversations as so many blog entries, which was a nice idea, but then the blog disappeared.

Today, Mujeeb Khan gave me the good news that the Conversations has been made available at archive.org. I have uploaded the book here in pdf format. I hope the yellowed leaves of the old library copy ‘add’ as much to your reading experience as they do to mine.

Here is
a night that is very long, it is endless. It is not time yet
to sleep in the palace. But go on telling your wonderful story.
I myself could hold out until the bright of dawn…
From Homer’s Odyssey in Richmond Lattimore’s translation

Goethe’s Conversations with Eckermann (PDF~37MB)
Translated by John Oxenford

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