Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : his life, works, and thought / H.B. Nisbet.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nisbet, H. B. (Hugh Barr)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, 1729-1781.

Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim.

Physical Description:

736 pages : illustrations

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Summary:

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) is the most eminent literary figure of the German Enlightenment and a writer of European significance. His range of interest as dramatist, poet, critic, philosopher, theologian, philologist and much else besides was comparable to that of Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau, with all of whose ideas he engaged. He contributed decisively to the emergence of German as a literary language and was the founder of modern German literature, urging his compatriots to look to England rather than France for literary inspiration. His major plays (including the classic drama on religious tolerance, Nathan the Wise) are still regularly performed. He was a brilliant controversialist, and his philosophical and religious writings profoundly shook traditional assumptions. This book sets his life and work in the context of the intellectual, social, and cultural background of eighteenth-century Europe.

Contents:

1 Kamenz, Meissen, Leipzig 1729-1748 7

2 Early Dramas and Poetry 43

3 Berlin 1748-1752: Society; Journalism; Didactic Poetry 79

4 Wittenberg and Associated Writings 1752-1754: History of Scholarship; Philosophy; Theology and Religion; Classical Philology; Epigrams 113

5 Berlin 1752-1755: the Academy Quarrel; Translations and Collected Writings; Social Circle and the Death of Mylius; Mendelssohn, Nicolai, and Other New Friendships; Pope a Metaphysician! 149

6 From Comedy to Tragedy 1754-1757: the Theatrical Library; Samuel Henzi; Miss Sara Sampson; Correspondence with Mendelssohn and Nicolai on Tragedy 183

7 Leipzig and Berlin 1755-1759: Travels; Translations and Journalism; Kleist, Gleim, and the Seven Years War; Philotas 221

8 Berlin 1758-1760: Letters on Literature; Logau Edition; Fables and Essays on the Fable; Translations of Diderot; Sophocles 249

9 The Middle Years: War and Peace in Breslau 1760-1765 279

10 Laocoön; Last Years in Berlin 1765-1766 303

11 Minna von Bamhelm 335

12 Hamburg and the National Theatre 359

13 Hamburg Writings 1767-1770: Hamburg Dramaturgy; Dramatic Fragments; Antiquarian Letters; How the Ancients Portrayed Death 391

14 Wolfenbüttel and Brunswick; Travels in Germany, Austria, and Italy; Engagement and Marriage: 1770-1776 423

15 Lessing, the Library and Related Publications: 1770-1782 457

16 Miscellaneous Writings; Emilia Galotti: 1770-1775 479

17 Philosophy and Theology 1770-1776; Marriage and Family Life; the Mannheim Theatre; Bereavement: 1776-1778 507

18 Reimarus, Goeze, and the Theological Conflict: 1776-1779 537

19 The Education of the Human Race and Ernst and Falk 571

20 Nathan the Wise 601

21 The Final Years 1778-1781: Declining Health; Conversations on Spinoza; Last Illness and Death; Memorials and Monuments; Lessing's Estate 625

22 Lessing's Reception: an Outline 655.

Notes:

Revised and expanded English version of: Lessing : eine Biographie (München, 2008).

ISBN:

9780199679478

0199679479

OCLC:

833404656

Online:

Table of contents