Der Roman der Goethezeit (1774-1829) (review)

REVIEWS 169 references are, however, no more than scattered interpolations. The chapter on Ferdinand Count Fathom includes two fresh paragraphs describing commentary since 1968 (pp. 67-68); the chapter on Sir Launcelot Greaves adds three paragraphs written to similar purpose (pp. 85-87); and so on. Spector does not engage much with what he describes, despite occasional disagreements; and when his descriptions end, back he goes to 1968 and dependency (it now seems excessive) on the works of Lewis Knapp, Louis Martz, and George Kahrl— all published in the 1940s. The only substantial original material appears in the opening chapter ("From Grub Street to Parnassus"), where there is expanded discussion of Smollett's journalistic, historical, and travel writing. Those who found Spector's study praiseworthy in 1968 will find it praiseworthy now; those who found it unsatisfactory will do so again. Nothing much has changed—so little, in fact, as to call into question the justification for this "updated edition," which is hardly more than an exercise in redundancy. The truth is that Spector, a very able critic and the compiler of an authoritative bibliography , Tobias Smollett: A Reference Guide (1980), certainly could have given us in his new book something more than his old one lightly spiffed up. We can only wish that he had done so. Jerry C. Beasley University of Delaware Dennis F. Mahoney. Der Roman der Goethezeit (1774-1829). Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler (Sammlung Metzler 241), 1988. xi + 169pp. The last two decades have seen a resurgence of interest and research in the German novel, especially in the Age of Goethe. The theory and the technique of the novel have been analysed and critical approaches discussed in three volumes of essays: R. Grimm, ed., Deutsche Romantheorien (1968); D. Kimpel and C. Wiedemann, Theorie und Technik des Romans im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert (1970); E. Lämmert, ed., Romantheorie (1971); and in two books, each consisting of two volumes: B. Hillebrand, Theorie des Romans, (1972); H. Steinecke, Romantheorie und Romankritik im Deutschland (1975-76). Literary analyses and interpretations of novels in the Age of Goethe and in the early nineteenth century were published in three volumes of essays: J. Schillemeit , ed., Interpretationen, Bd. 3 Deutsche Romane (1966); and, in particularly exemplary form, P.M. Lützeler, Romane und Erzählungen der Deutschen Romantik (1981) and Romane und Erzählungen zwischen Romantik und Realismus: Neue Interpretationen (1983). H. Emmel published a history of the German novel of self-cultivation [Bildungsroman], History of the German Novel (1984). 170 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION New interpretations of Goethe's novels were published in two volumes of essays : J. Lillyman, ed., Goethe's Narrative Fiction (1983); P.M. Liitzeler and J. McLeod, eds., Goethes Erzählwerk (1985). Considering the huge number of publications on the novel in the Age of Goethe, it was a courageous decision for one scholar to attempt a comprehensive overview and an exhaustive synthesis. It should be stated at the outset that Dennis F. Mahoney succeeded remarkably well with his book of 169 pages, Der Roman der Goethezeit (1774-1829). Mahoney is well read. He presents a very sensible selection of the most important and most representative novels of the Age of Goethe. He discusses over forty novels and gives passing attention to many others, including references to the influence of European philosophers, writers, and novelists (Voltaire, Rousseau, Cervantes, Sterne, Richardson). The author has a remarkable gift for condensing his interpretation of individual novels, or groups of novels, into a few pages, including the discussion of the most important secondary works. His interpretations are followed by extensive and carefully selected bibliographies which do not miss a single really important work. In his book Mahoney starts out with an introduction to the social conditions which give rise to the German novel in the eighteenth century, "in order to show its place in the historical, social and literary framework" (p. vii). The introduction then deals with what he calls the "fictionalization" of the book market, the reading public, and the most important approaches to research in the novel of the Age of Goethe. As might be expected, each chapter begins with the discussion of one of Goethe's four novels, because...