Cover: Meh. It’s a lovely painting, but it’s flat. It doesn’t stand out nor attract attention.

So, the famous backlog I was about to clean? I didn’t. I had to put everything on hold for a long while, alas. Now, this is attempt #2 at it.

Jena 1800 is a good(ish) book. It starts with a bang—the French soldiers are on the prowl and the Prussian outposts are as good as gone—which sets the mood right away. War! Political instability! Uncertainty! The setting couldn’t be more promising. Being dropped into the thick of it right from the start is something I appreciate.

However, the enthusiasm dies down pretty soon. First of all, the story reads like a gossip mag at times; I didn’t pick up a book about philosophy and German idealism just to delve into people’s love life, you know? Read your, er, target audience a bit better 🙂

Then, I guess the gossipy stylistic choice, together with a non-chronological timeline, makes it harder to connect with the characters, too. It saddens me, because from a strictly historical point of view, the topic is interesting. It has potential; it just should have been told in a different way.

Strong points of Jena 1800? The prose, as I couldn’t find any typos or mistakes, and the images embedded in the book. Being able to see a painting referenced in the book is always great.

3 stars on GR.

Many, many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this excellent work.

This was such an excellent surprise. The author/translator guides us through an incredibly interesting time for the university town of Jena at the start of the 19th century.. I learned much from this. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in intellectual history.

Read my review at Shelf Awareness here: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/readers/2022-02-15/jena_1800:_the_republic_of_free_spirits.html

I was captured by the description of this book, a book about poets and thinkers coming together at a time when wars have just ended and free thinking was not encouraged. Especially coming together in a town in Germany at the turn of the 19th century, when we know what in a few short years will transpire there, quelling all free thinkers and exterminating poets, philosophers and the like. But this was a time of enlightenment, when poets like Dorothea Schlegel, and Goethe converged on the small town of Jena. Joining them would be philosophers Schlegel and Schelling along with their wives and many other thinkers, poets and philosophers.
This was a very interesting account of the town and the artists who came together at this special time. Highly detailed, giving good description of the atmosphere that prevaded the era. But this book was difficult to get through. Maybe because of being translated, but it was dry and clinical at times. I was expecting something a little bit more lyrical because of the subject matter I suppose.
Still not a bad read to get an understanding of these men and women and the times in which they lived. Thank you to Net Galley and Farrar, Strauss and Giroux for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review in return.