Norbert Miller

Der Wanderer: Goethe in Italien
by Norbert Miller
Der Wanderer: Goethe in Italien
I gave this book five stars before I read much of it based on the short anecdote used instead of an introduction: Mendelssohn hiked through part of Italy with Goethe's writings as his guide in 1831, and was thrilled to find the exact spot where Goethe wrote his wonderful poem "Der Wanderer" and reported on a moving encounter with the peasant mother who stars in the verses. Miller points out the the poem was written c. 1771, long before Goethe himself ever set foot in Italy, and when Goethe learned of Mendelssohn's comments he credited poetry with predictive powers (voraus ahnen)....in 1831 artist Catel captured the exact details and mood of the predicted encounter with a mother living in a hut built from shards of once great architecture, though the connection between painting and poem has only recently been recovered by scholars....I read the first couple hundred pages of Miller while in Tuscany, and met two German guys hiking from Florence to Sienna, and found a stack of German copies of G's "Italienische Reise" in the Feltrinelli bookstore at the Florence train station....G. is still prescient...and Miller doesn't disappoint; at 608 pages for text and another hundred of footnotes, you won't likely finish this book in the middle of your hike or flight. If there is a slow reading trend to go with the Italian slow food trend, this book works well...I hope to finish it before the end of the year... (less)… (more)