[Blahhhshsh]

When I closed this novel, I was exhilarated and overwhelmed. This is a great novel, strict and philosophical, as well as sensuous and wild. Wieland is an extraordinary reader and thinker as well as a great poet and novelist. There are good writers, and then there are great writers and then there are writers who were not of their time: writers whose work has been misread, misunderstood and largely misappreciated in their time, the most famous among which is probably Herman Melville. Another great example of an influential yet seriously underappreciated writer is Christoph Martin Wieland; his major work is the Geschichte des Agathon (History of Agathon). The Geschichte des Agathon influenced the German novel like few other books, and even today it baffles and fascinates; it?s both an excursus on theology, philosophy, morals and the limits and possibilities of the novel. Christoph Martin Wieland was born in 1733 and died in 1813, and in between he produced an inimitable body of work the depths of which have still not been plumbed. He published the Geschichte des Agathon in 1766, and three revisions during the next 34 years, the last of which appeared in 1800. I have read only the first version of it; it?s is the most influential, and from what I know about the other versions, most interesting, of the four. (...) Die Geschichte des Agathon is a long book, full of digressions, but nothing appears superfluous in the novel, not even the writing which strikes a happy balance between a somewhat sentimental, and, for its time anyway, remarkably reduced use of words. It may be daunting, but it is a riveting read that will overwhelm you as it did me. On Christoph M. Wieland’s “Die Geschichte des Agathon” shigekuni.

It's such a grand, grand book. I've tried to find out whether it has been translated into English, but no luck yet. I thought maybe Carlyle translated it but nothing yet.

[whimpykid]

History of the Abderites - translated by Max Dufner

http://www.amazon.com/History-Abderi...388819&sr=11-1

Is this a different book ?

[Blahhhshsh]

History of the Abderites - translated by Max Dufner

http://www.amazon.com/History-Abderi...388819&sr=11-1

Is this a different book ?

Yup it is. But good to know.