History of the Agathon
History of the Agathon is a novel by the German writer Christoph Martin Wieland (1733–1813)first published in two volumes in 1766 and 1767 and revised in 1773 and 1794 respectively.
He is considered the first major education and educational novel in German literature and a precursor of the modern psychological novel . The action takes place in the transition from the 5th to the 4th century BC, depicting the growing up of the beautiful Athenian youth Agathon into a mature man. The author shows how Agathon gradually comes to a more realistic, more promising and happier attitude to life through disillusionment and disappointment.
content
The motto of the novel is: Quid Virtus, et quid Sapientia possit / utile proposuit nobis exemplum. "What virtue and wisdom can do / has shown us a useful example."
The young Agathon is an enthusiastic enthusiast who believes in ideals that, according to Wieland, are not suitable for reality. First he has to experience the double standards and cunning of the priests in the Sanctuary of Delphi . Then the Athenians disappoint him with their envy and political fickleness . The sophist Hippias then betrays his ideal of true spiritual love. Finally, Agathon arrives at the court of the tyrant of Syracuse and, using Plato's example, has to experience that philosophical ideals cannot be implemented in political practice. At this stage Agathon is in danger of becoming a despiser like Hippias. But then fortunate circumstances save him: In Taranto he finds the right teacher of practical life and world wisdom in Archytas who leads him to Kalokagathy - the harmonious balance of virtue, reason, feeling and aesthetic sensibility.
expenditure
- First edition of the first version: 2 vols. 1766 a. 1767. Frankfurt and Leipzig. Actually published by Orell, Geßner and Compagnie in Zurich.
- Reprint: Edited by Klaus Schäfer. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1961
- New edition: Manesse, Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-7175-1984-0 . Ed. and with an afterword by Rolf Vollmann .
- History of the Agathon. Edited by Klaus Manger. Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-618-61630-9 [in the appendix: Synoptic overview of the sequence of chapters in the first and last version as well as additions and additions from 1773, 1794 and 1800, commentary, register].
- History of the Agathon. In: Wieland's works. Historical-critical edition . Edited by Klaus Manger and Jan Philipp Reemtsma . Volume 8.1, edited by Klaus Manger. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 1-455, ISBN 978-3-11-018881-3 .
- First edition of the second version: Weidmanns Erben und Reich, Leipzig 1773.
- Agathon. In: Wieland's works. Historical-critical edition. Edited by Klaus Manger and Jan Philipp Reemtsma , Vol. 10.1 | 2, edited by Hans-Peter Nowitzki, Berlin / New York 2009, pp. 1–553.
- Third version appeared in the context of Sämmliche Werke Göschen, Leipzig 1794. In it, Vol. 1 - 3
- Reprint: Ed. from the Hamburg Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Culture and Hans Radlayers. Greno, Nördlingen 1984.
- Agathon. Edited by Wilhelm Kurrelmeyer . Weidmann, Berlin 1937 (Wielands Gesammelte Schriften. Ed. By the German Commission of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Dept. I: Works. Vol. 6).
- Audiobook: History of the Agathon. The first version read by Hans Jochim Schmidt . 3 MP3 CDs, 1387 min. Reader Schmidt Hörbuchverlag, Papenburg ISBN 978-3-945723-10-4 .
literature
- Klaus Manger: Christoph Martin Wieland. History of the Agathon. In: Novels of the 17th and 18th centuries. Interpretations. Reclam, Stuttgart 1996 ( RUB ), pp. 150-170.
Web links
- History of the Agathon - Part 1 in Project Gutenberg ( currently usually not available for users from Germany )
- History of the Agathon - Part 2 in Project Gutenberg ( currently not usually available for users from Germany )
- History of the Agathon in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Agathon Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 expanded edition from 1794 as a public domain audio book by LibriVox