USD $199.00
Goethe's Faust I Outlined
Moritz Retzsch's Prints in Circulation
Series: - Library of the Written Word, Volume: 113
- Library of the Written Word - The Industrial World, Volume: 113
Author:
In a new approach to Goethe's
Faust I, Evanghelia Stead extensively discusses Moritz Retzsch's twenty-six outline prints (1816) and how their spin-offs made the unfathomable play available to larger reader communities through copying and extensive distribution circuits, including bespoke gifts. The images amply transformed as they travelled throughout Europe and overseas, revealing differences between countries and cultures but also their pliability and resilience whenever remediated.
This interdisciplinary investigation evidences the importance of print culture throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in nations involved in competition and conflict. Retzsch's foundational set crucially engenders parody, and inspires the stage, literature, and three-dimensional objects, well beyond common perceptions of print culture's influence.
This book is available in open access thanks to an Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) grant.
This interdisciplinary investigation evidences the importance of print culture throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in nations involved in competition and conflict. Retzsch's foundational set crucially engenders parody, and inspires the stage, literature, and three-dimensional objects, well beyond common perceptions of print culture's influence.
This book is available in open access thanks to an Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) grant.
Evanghelia Stead, Professor of Comparative Literature and Print Culture at UVSQ Paris Saclay, has published extensively on the fin-de-siècle, Greek and Latin myths in modern literature, texts and iconography, periodicals, and books as cultural objects, including Goethe's
Faust I.
“Ausführlichkeit und Anschaulichkeit der Beschreibungen, Prägnanz und Aussagekraft der Analysen, Breite und Fülle des verarbeiteten Wissens sowie des Quellen- und Bildmaterials, Interdisziplinarität und Perspektivenreichtum, Vielzahl und Qualität der Abbildungen, Sorgfalt und Tiefe der bibliographischen Angaben (allein die beiden umfangreichen, chronologisch-tabellarisch geordneten bibliographischen Verzeichnisse im Anhang, die Ausgaben der Umrisse und Remediationen aufführen, enthalten eine Überfülle genauester Informationen), schließlich das sehr differenziert strukturierte Register, das benutzerfreundlich jederzeit den Zugriff auf spezifische thematische Aspekte ermöglicht – Evanghelia Steads Monographie setzt in vielerlei Hinsicht neue Maßstäbe in der wissenschaftlichen Aufarbeitung der Geschichte der Faust-Illustration, nicht nur in Bezug auf die Umrisse von Moritz Retzsch. Zukünftige Arbeiten in diesem Bereich werden in ihrer Studie ein unverzichtbares Referenzwerk vorfinden.”
Carsten Rohde, Sun Yat-sen University. In: Goethe Jahrbuch, Vol. 140 (2023), pp. 320–322.
“Steads interdisziplinäre Untersuchung [leistet] einen zentralen Beitrag zur Bedeutung des kulturellen Austauschs mittels der graphischen Künste in den miteinander konkurrierenden Nationen Europas während des 19. und im frühen 20. Jahrhundert.”
Gerd-Helge Vogel, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. In: Kunstchronik, Vol. 77, No. 9/10 (2024), pp. 650–656.
Carsten Rohde, Sun Yat-sen University. In: Goethe Jahrbuch, Vol. 140 (2023), pp. 320–322.
“Steads interdisziplinäre Untersuchung [leistet] einen zentralen Beitrag zur Bedeutung des kulturellen Austauschs mittels der graphischen Künste in den miteinander konkurrierenden Nationen Europas während des 19. und im frühen 20. Jahrhundert.”
Gerd-Helge Vogel, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. In: Kunstchronik, Vol. 77, No. 9/10 (2024), pp. 650–656.
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Introduction: Air View and Ant Perspective
Moritz Retzsch’s Etchings after Goethe’s Faust I
1 Retzsch in the German States, a Borderline Celebrity
1.1 Profile in Contrast
1.2 Romantic Pranks and Rituals
1.3 Portraits and Sociability
1.4 A Poetic Mind
1.5 The Toils of Fancy and Melancholy
1.6 Fluctuating Fate in Nineteenth-Century German States
1.7 Plights and Plusses of Comparison (Retzsch, Cornelius & Naeke)
1.8 German Amendments in the Twentieth Century
1.9 Conclusion
2 Faust I Outlined and the Original Retzsch Effect
2.1 A Modern Fourfold Device
2.2 Goethe’s Gifts
2.3 In Goethe’s Orb
2.4 Retzsch at Work: Early Correspondence
2.5 A Speculation on Relics
2.6 “Full of Spirit”
2.7 Outline Reformation
2.8 Retzsch in Colour
2.9 To Conclude
3 German Editions and Copies: The Bait of Rich Morsels
3.1 Avowable (and Uncertain) Cotta Portfolios
3.2 From Portfolios to Albums
3.3 Pirated Goods
3.4 Styled for the Ladies
3.5 Valuing Copies in Visual Circulation
4 First Steps in Britain
4.1 A Momentous Gift from Perthes to Crabb Robinson
4.2 Imported Wares and Motley Exemplars
4.3 Media Coverage and Publicity (A Mediated Launch)
4.4 A First English Point of View (George Soane’s Letterpress)
4.5 Books as Cultural Objects: Readers and Cultural Representation
4.6 Dibdin in Action
5 Retzsch Copied in Britain and Beyond
5.1 Attractive and Collectable
5.2 Cultural Adaptability
5.3 Boosey’s 1820 Edition Re-issued?
5.4 “A More Careful Abstract”
5.5 Faustus as Template
5.6 Retzsch Gains Ground in Other Garb and Guises
5.7 Retzsch Wielded by Illustration
5.8 Competing Formats
5.9 “Bound to Please”
5.10 First Conclusions on Foreign Circulation
6 Retzsch in France and Belgium
6.1 Retzsch by Muret for Artists, Readers, and Print Collectors
6.2 Three Little Audot
6.3 A Francized Original Retzsch
6.4 Copies vs Originals? The Brussels Case
6.5 Retzsch in French Nineteenth-Century Print Culture
6.6 Retzsch’s Diffuse Influence
6.7 Conclusion
7 Extensive and Intensive Iconography
7.1 Loose Leaves
7.2 Copies, Copies, Copies …
7.3 Bowdlerizing
7.4 A Kiss’s Exceptional Fortune
7.5 Spread and Sway on Style, Form and Set
7.6 Extensive vs. Intensive Iconography
7.7 Extensive Rations
7.8 Intensive Inspiration
7.9 Recycling and Authorship in Image Circulation
8 The Power of Parody: A Crow amongst Nations
8.1 A Crow’s Quill
8.2 Travesties
8.3 Mischief in Images
8.4 Homecoming and “Who Loves a Laugh”
8.5 A Mocking Deity with a Meerschaum Pipe
9 Outlines in the Limelight
9.1 Aptitudes and Assets
9.2 Weimar Trials
9.3 Staging: German Décors
9.4 British and French Décors
9.5 Time, Stage and the Arts
9.6 Performance: Fixed, Inviolable Instants?
9.7 Outfits: Models and Embodiment
9.8 Creating Types
9.9 In the Limelight over Time
10 Ink Worlds
10.1 Devilish Relish of Converted Israelites
10.2 Théophile Gautier from Travelogue to Aesthetics
10.3 Visual Traps in Prose
10.4 Pictures within the Picture in Illustrated Books
10.5 Games of Fiction, Tricks and Screens
11 Two Gifted Women
11.1 Goethe’s and Byron’s Gifts
11.2 The Book as a Rose
11.3 Twelve Apostles and a Faust
12 Artefacts: Poetics of Everyday Life
12.1 Treasures of Gold and China
12.2 Porcelain for the Many
12.3 Moulded and Backlit
12.4 In Tin and Frail Paper
12.5 Conclusion
Conclusion: Grains of Sand as Cities
Appendix 1: Moritz Retzsch’s 26 Umrisse in Original and Copied Editions
Appendix 2: Moritz Retzsch’s Prints Remediated
Bibliography
Index on Moritz Retzsch
General Index
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Introduction: Air View and Ant Perspective
Moritz Retzsch’s Etchings after Goethe’s Faust I
1 Retzsch in the German States, a Borderline Celebrity
1.1 Profile in Contrast
1.2 Romantic Pranks and Rituals
1.3 Portraits and Sociability
1.4 A Poetic Mind
1.5 The Toils of Fancy and Melancholy
1.6 Fluctuating Fate in Nineteenth-Century German States
1.7 Plights and Plusses of Comparison (Retzsch, Cornelius & Naeke)
1.8 German Amendments in the Twentieth Century
1.9 Conclusion
2 Faust I Outlined and the Original Retzsch Effect
2.1 A Modern Fourfold Device
2.2 Goethe’s Gifts
2.3 In Goethe’s Orb
2.4 Retzsch at Work: Early Correspondence
2.5 A Speculation on Relics
2.6 “Full of Spirit”
2.7 Outline Reformation
2.8 Retzsch in Colour
2.9 To Conclude
3 German Editions and Copies: The Bait of Rich Morsels
3.1 Avowable (and Uncertain) Cotta Portfolios
3.2 From Portfolios to Albums
3.3 Pirated Goods
3.4 Styled for the Ladies
3.5 Valuing Copies in Visual Circulation
4 First Steps in Britain
4.1 A Momentous Gift from Perthes to Crabb Robinson
4.2 Imported Wares and Motley Exemplars
4.3 Media Coverage and Publicity (A Mediated Launch)
4.4 A First English Point of View (George Soane’s Letterpress)
4.5 Books as Cultural Objects: Readers and Cultural Representation
4.6 Dibdin in Action
5 Retzsch Copied in Britain and Beyond
5.1 Attractive and Collectable
5.2 Cultural Adaptability
5.3 Boosey’s 1820 Edition Re-issued?
5.4 “A More Careful Abstract”
5.5 Faustus as Template
5.6 Retzsch Gains Ground in Other Garb and Guises
5.7 Retzsch Wielded by Illustration
5.8 Competing Formats
5.9 “Bound to Please”
5.10 First Conclusions on Foreign Circulation
6 Retzsch in France and Belgium
6.1 Retzsch by Muret for Artists, Readers, and Print Collectors
6.2 Three Little Audot
6.3 A Francized Original Retzsch
6.4 Copies vs Originals? The Brussels Case
6.5 Retzsch in French Nineteenth-Century Print Culture
6.6 Retzsch’s Diffuse Influence
6.7 Conclusion
7 Extensive and Intensive Iconography
7.1 Loose Leaves
7.2 Copies, Copies, Copies …
7.3 Bowdlerizing
7.4 A Kiss’s Exceptional Fortune
7.5 Spread and Sway on Style, Form and Set
7.6 Extensive vs. Intensive Iconography
7.7 Extensive Rations
7.8 Intensive Inspiration
7.9 Recycling and Authorship in Image Circulation
8 The Power of Parody: A Crow amongst Nations
8.1 A Crow’s Quill
8.2 Travesties
8.3 Mischief in Images
8.4 Homecoming and “Who Loves a Laugh”
8.5 A Mocking Deity with a Meerschaum Pipe
9 Outlines in the Limelight
9.1 Aptitudes and Assets
9.2 Weimar Trials
9.3 Staging: German Décors
9.4 British and French Décors
9.5 Time, Stage and the Arts
9.6 Performance: Fixed, Inviolable Instants?
9.7 Outfits: Models and Embodiment
9.8 Creating Types
9.9 In the Limelight over Time
10 Ink Worlds
10.1 Devilish Relish of Converted Israelites
10.2 Théophile Gautier from Travelogue to Aesthetics
10.3 Visual Traps in Prose
10.4 Pictures within the Picture in Illustrated Books
10.5 Games of Fiction, Tricks and Screens
11 Two Gifted Women
11.1 Goethe’s and Byron’s Gifts
11.2 The Book as a Rose
11.3 Twelve Apostles and a Faust
12 Artefacts: Poetics of Everyday Life
12.1 Treasures of Gold and China
12.2 Porcelain for the Many
12.3 Moulded and Backlit
12.4 In Tin and Frail Paper
12.5 Conclusion
Conclusion: Grains of Sand as Cities
Appendix 1: Moritz Retzsch’s 26 Umrisse in Original and Copied Editions
Appendix 2: Moritz Retzsch’s Prints Remediated
Bibliography
Index on Moritz Retzsch
General Index
Aimed at scholars, students, art institutes, and academic libraries, this book cuts across broad interdisciplinary sectors: nineteenth-century, comparative literature, Goethe studies, art historical criticism, book/print & cultural history, illustration, and media studies. Keywords: World canon, European Romanticism, materiality, reception, translation, visual studies, reproduction, remediation, word-and-image, gifts, copies, heritage texts.