The book by Miller comprises a collection of Goethe's scientific writings over his entire life selecting the major works and leaving more detailed renderings to other texts such as Berta Mueller's "Goethe's Botanical Writings", or Amrine's "Goethe in the History of Science". The book ranges over physics, botanical investigations, animal structure, human intermaxiallary bone, meteorology, geology and also some essays on the process of scientific investigation itself.

Goethe's writings are subtle, especially his essays and I feel that the translation may have been better from the original German which I mean to obtain (being able to read German has its advantages). Of course this judgement could well be premature since I have not read the original as yet. This does not take away from the book which is a good reference text for a broad outline.

Well worth getting when looking at Goethe's works and approach to science.

The 3 stars are for the lousy editing and organizing of the book, not its actual contents, which is a collection of the more important works of I understand one of the world's greatest writer.

Books like this should be judged by the way they are edited -- the stature over the past 200 years of the author and of his works contained in the book are beyond dispute anymore. You can always say all the superlative words about, say, Shakespeare or James Joyce, but it will only show that you are just catching up with what the rest of the world knows already. Same here.

Usually, books like this, specially those published by supposedly respectable publishers, would be a bit more well organized. A well known critic would introduce the book at the level of an average reader, would tell you how the works that comprise the collection were selected, would tell you the merits and demerits of the available translations and why a particular translation was chosen for the collection, etc.

It would have maps and chronologies and a bit more background information so you will appreciate better the historical and geographical and cultural context of the author's works.

Aside from the chronology and a terribly irrelevant and unreadable and useless and boring exercise in conceited academic hoo-hah, otherwise known as the book's Introduction, you get none of those goodies and you must just fend for yourself while wading in 1,248 pages of 200 year-old literature.

The specialists -- those who are engaged in the cottage industry that surrounds a major writer -- will probably like this book, if indeed this book collects all of Goethe's books that matter in the English translation.

However for the dilettante like you and me who just knows that Goethe is supposed to be a good writer and specially those who are looking for a good English translation of any of his major work, this book is no help at all. You just don't know whether the translations are the best ones available in English.

Almost all the paraphernalia in the book are useless, and you will be like reading an unknown 200 year-old 1,248-page book of an unknown writer.

(P.S. but I did enjoy reading the Sorrows of Young Werther and the poems, for all they are worth.)

This text is a companion volume to the Wittgenstein Reader anthology (Blackwell). It is a lukewarm, hit and miss collection of articles that topically corresponds to areas covered in the reader. I would recommend Crary's The New W. (Routledge) or David Pears or David Stern prior to this. The Cambridge Companion (Sluga/Stern) is also an excellent collection of articles.

The articles that stand out here are: Ishiguro, "The So-Called Picture Theory...," Rundle, "Meaning and Understanding," Arrington, "Following a Rule," Schroeder, "PL and Private Experience," Mulhall, "Seeing Aspects," Schwyzer, "Autonomy," Grayling, "W. on Skepticism and Certainty," and Hacker, "Philosophy."

On rule-following I would recommend McDowell's articles (in Mind Value...Harvard UP) Gibbs, Rule-Following; and on math necessity I would recommend the articles by Dummett (Truth...Harvard UP), Stroud (Mind Meaning.../Oxford UP), and Putnam.

What a shame! That a respected publisher like Basic Books would release a text in such a sorry state. As a translator, I don't like to criticize my colleagues, but the language of this translation is appalling. It reads as though the translator, in many places, just put English words in place of the German. When I ran some of the sentences by some colleagues, they all agreed that they could see the German syntax through the English text.

While the translator is at fault, the publisher is guilty of not taking the blue pencil to this text. This gives such gems as:

Legend has praised one of the Bachs to the skies in particular:

... they made music that was not to be sneezed at.

That the sons would also become musicians was taken for granted.

Of their childhood there was nothing left.

Though time-consuming in any event, the experience was nonetheless rewarding...

To Luther's Reformation belonged above all the lively participation of the congregation in the worship service, especially the German hymns that were sung together, and therefore the cultivation of church music.

These sentences, all taken from the first couple of chapters, stand out like potholes in the road of reading. I couldn't go any further than page 18.

Save your money...

I divide this book in two parts. An interesting view of Bach's life, quite different from the "standard", and a book review to complain of the other biographies. If he concentrated in his view on Bach's life it would be an interesting book. His comments about the other biographers belong in the end notes. They are not a part of the story of Bach. I read foot notes, mind you, but including them in the text only detracts from the flow of the story.
His comments about the music per-se are very interesting. They served my purpose, in buying this book. But once again, if I bought the author's book it is because I would like to know what he thinks ... not why other musicologist are wrong in their evaluation. Mine might be wrong, and that is why I want other's opinion, not their opinion on other people.

This comprehensive biography clears up 250 years' worth of legend with a new reading of the documentary evidence around Bach's life as uncovered through the author's extensive research. Engagingly and eccentric in opinion it makes us wonder that much of what we think we know of the composers and their music is more fiction and fancy that biography and social history, enough so that I wonder along with the author about the lives of other composers. The picture of Bach is one of a struggling musician who made some serious career move mistakes which if it did not noticeably affect his art at least cause injury to his social standing and livelihood. Well worth a read for the context it puts the creation of his music in to.

This book is a study score edition, which in this case seems to mean it's just like sheet music but one quarter the size. In case you, like myself, haven't thought to read the book dimensions, it is a tiny little book about 4"x6", and not suitable for actually playing piano. Though its web page describes it as paperback, it is actually hardback. For someone actually interested in the study score edition, however, it is packed solid with inventions, symphonies, preludes, and fugues.

I read this one in highschool. It is a play about the son of a count (Karl) who has a very ambitious brother (Franz). Franz creates a rift between Karl and his father setting himself up to be the next count while Karl is hunted as a criminal and joins a band of robbers becoming their captain. In the end Karl will return, but it may be too late already. Don't want to spoil any surprises for you...

The play defitely is a German classic and one of Schillers most famous works. I still found it a bit boring. It never really took off. I have read other plays that I really liked. I also read other stuff by Schiller that I liked. I don't think that I am particulary biased, but I think my time would have been invested better by reading sth else. Also, if you do not read German fairly fluently don't buy this edition; it is the original German version.

Independiente de la obra de Goethe que es un clasico las 2 estrellas son para la editorial. La edicion es en español y contiene varias erratas. El libro no lo dice por ningun lado: esta es solo la primera parte de la obra.

This is volume 2 of a 3 volume work. Unfortunately you can't tell that from the product description unless you read the cover page very carefully. Volume 2 is 700+ pages long. I have not been able to find volumes 1 and 3. Would not have purchased this had I known it wasn't the "complete" Spitta. ("Unabridged" shown on the web site is "Unabridged-in 3 volumes" when you're able to read the cover of the book).

Too much of the "genealogy" is undocumented and repleat with assumnptions that can not be justified. The author quotes many works with neither quotation marks nor attribution thus appearing to be his original work. He cites a record that indicates the father of the Ammerican immigrant was Cornelis Killen, yet calls him Mattheuse Cornelissen Van Nieuwkercke. A name that never appeared on any document known to me. Ther are passages in which he states such non informative data as: "It is believed that he..." or "He may have married... " We are not told who beleives nor why was the marriage in doubt. The appearance of dates in which the child was born after the death of it mother could have been checked more carefully. The book will provide an abundance of names that the reader can do his own digging in order to document.

Valenti's guide to the keyboard Partitas of J.S. Bach is an entirely subjective account of his personal interpretive whims. Written in a scripted, question and answer format (with dissapointing results) each movement of each Partita is alloted about three to five questions which, frustrating for the serious performer, tend to focus on historical asides rather than specifcs of articulation, dynamics, slurring, etc. In addition to this, these questions are often far more vague and juvenile than one would expect of an experienced musician ready to learn these monumental works. Occasionally the author will compare different editions of the Partitas and point out some important thoughts on ornamentation, but one would do better to spend the forty dollars on several good recordings of the works, which will likely be far more illuminating and enjoyable.