Goethe, by T.J. Reed (Oxford, £5.99 in UK)

As a contribution to the "Past Masters" series, which already has covered more than twenty names ranging from Aquinas to Heidegger, this volume is unexceptional though slightly tame, as though T.J. Reed had leant rather too far backwards to accommodate Goethe to modern rationalist preconceptions. Goethe, however, is big enough to answer most ideological demands and can survive a wide variety of interpretations, and this brief study balances the large literary output with his wide-ranging philosophical and scientific interests. I suspect, however, that much which is peculiar to Goethe's very individual mentality has somehow escaped the net.