This book explores the history of the reception in Britain of German literature and thought as embodied in the work of Kant, Lessing, the Schlegels, Schiller and, preeminently, Goethe, focusing mainly on Coleridge, Carlyle, George Eliot and George Henry Lewes, but also including other major figures such as Scott, Wordsworth, De Quincey and Matthew Arnold.

‘Rosemary Ashton’s study takes its place immediately among the most interesting books ever written about Anglo-German cultural relations. Meticulously researched and imaginatively documented, using manuscript as well as printed sources, it tells its absorbing story with a clarity and elegance that makes reading it a delightful as well as a constantly informative and stimulating experience.’ S.S. Prawer, Times Literary Supplement

‘This modest and capable work makes its task seem effortless. Yet first it accounts clearly for the German literature in question, then how it seeped into British consciousness, the interaction of the two literatures, and the result not only in translations, reviews and biographies, but in original work by Coleridge, Carlyle, G.H. Lewes and George Eliot. Dr Ashton ranges widely, comments shrewdly and explains effectively.’ Keith Fielding, Times Higher Education Supplement

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First published (in hardback only) by Cambridge University Press in 1980
Paperback published by Libris in 1994