The German Idea Four English Writers and the Reception of German Thought, 1800-1860

The four writers concerned in this book are Coleridge, Carlyle, George Eliot and George Henry Lewes. The book explores the history of the impact in Britain of German classical literature and thought (Kant, Lessing, Schiller and pre-eminently Goethe) on these four writers as well as other major figures like Scott, Wordsworth, De Qunicey and Matthew Arnold.