In den Jahren nach den Napoleonischen Kriegen gewann der in Bremen geborene John Henry Bohte (1784–1824) als Buchverkäufer und Verleger mit einem in London angesiedelten Import/Export-Geschäft und einer Präsenz in Leipzig schnell an Ansehen. Anfang 1813 eröffnete Bohte als noch Zwanzigjähriger seinen Laden in der York Street, Covent Garden. Er spezialisierte sich auf den Import deutscher Bücher und deutscher Ausgaben der griechischen und römischen Klassiker, vereinigte sein Einzelhandelsgeschäft aber schnell mit der „Deutschen Lesebibliothek“. Anfang 1820 wurde er als „Ausländischer Buchhändler seiner Majestät, dem König“ mit einem „Royal Warrant“, dem Hoflieferantenstatus, ausgezeichnet. Das Portfolio der Produkte und Dienstleistungen von Bohtes Geschäft umfasste nicht nur den Import deutscher Bücher, sondern auch ein ambitioniertes Verlagsprogramm für die Bereiche der deutschen und englischen Literatur, der klassischen Philologie und Naturgeschichte. Bohtes regelmäßige und lange Reisen nach Deutschland zur Leipziger Buchmesse reflektierten seine Ambition, zudem einer der Hauptexporteure englischer Bücher für den Kontinent zu werden. In den Worten eines anonymen Rezensenten wurde Bohte als „der temperamentvollste und nützlichste Buchverkäufer“ betrachtet. Trotz seines frühen Todes im Alter von 40 Jahren in London im Jahr 1824 hinterließ er wichtige Nachlässe sowohl in London als auch in Leipzig. In seiner Biografie von J. H. Bohte, "An Ocean of Literature", nutzt Graham Jefcoate eine umfangreiche Auswahl von Materialien aus Sammlungen in Großbritannien, Deutschland und weiteren Ländern, um die Rolle des Buchhandels im Laufe des deutsch-britischen Austauschs des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts zu veranschaulichen. ****** In the years following the Napoleonic Wars, the Bremen-born John Henry Bohte (1784-1824) quite rapidly acquired a reputation as a bookseller and publisher, with an import/export business based in London and also a presence in Leipzig. Bohte opened his shop in York Street, Covent Garden, in early 1813, while still in his twenties. He specialised in importing German books and German editions of the Greek and Roman classics, but soon combined his retail business with a German circulating library, the “Deutsche Lesebibliothek”. In early 1820, he was awarded a Royal Warrant as “Foreign Bookseller to His Majesty the King”. The portfolio of products and services offered by Bohte’s business included not just the importation of German books, but also an ambitious publishing programme in the fields of German and English literature, classical philology and natural history. Bohte’s regular and prolonged trips to Germany to attend the Leipzig Easter Book Fairs reflected his ambition to become a major exporter of English books to the continent too. In the words of one anonymous reviewer, Bohte was considered “a most spirited and most useful bookseller”. Although he died suddenly in London in 1824, aged only forty, he left an important legacy in both London and Leipzig. In his biography of J. H. Bohte, An Ocean of Literature, Graham Jefcoate has used a wide range of materials from collections in Britain, Germany and elsewhere to illuminate the role of the book trade in the process of Anglo-German exchange in the early nineteenth century.

From Goethe to Gundolf: Essays on German Literature and Culture is a collection of Roger Paulin’s groundbreaking essays, spanning the last forty years. The work represents his major research interests of Romanticism and the reception of Shakespeare in Germany, but also explores a broader range of themes, from poetry and the public memorialization of poets to fairy stories - all meticulously researched, yet highly accessible. As a comprehensive examination of German literary history in the period 1700-1900, the collection not only includes accounts of the lives and work of Goethe, Schiller, the Schlegels, and Gundolf (amongst others), serving to nuance our understanding of these figures in history, but also considers diverse (and often underexplored) topics, from academic freedom to the rise of travel literature. The essays have been reformulated, corrected, and updated to add references to recent works. However, the core foundations of the originals remain, and just as when they were first published, the value of these essays – to researchers, students, and all those who are interested in German literary history – cannot be overstated.

This book explores the differing ways in which language has been used to try to make sense of the First World War. Offering further developments in an innovative approach to the study of the conflict, it develops a transnational viewpoint of the experience of war to reveal less expected areas of language use during the conflict. Taking the study of the First World War far beyond the Western Front, chapters examine experiences in many regions, including Africa, Armenia, post-war Australia, Russia and Estonia, and a variety of contexts, from prisoner-of-war and internment camps, to food queues and post-war barracks. Drawing upon a wide variety of languages, such as Esperanto, Flemish, Italian, Kiswahili, Portuguese, Romanian and Turkish, Multilingual Environments in the Great War brings together language experiences of conflict from both combatants and the home front, connecting language and literature with linguistic analysis of the immediacy of communication.

In a new approach to Goethe's Faust I, Evanghelia Stead extensively discusses Moritz Retzsch's twenty-six outline prints (1816) and how their spin-offs made the unfathomable play available to larger reader communities through copying and extensive distribution circuits, including bespoke gifts. The images amply transformed as they travelled throughout Europe and overseas, revealing differences between countries and cultures but also their pliability and resilience whenever remediated. This interdisciplinary investigation evidences the importance of print culture throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in nations involved in competition and conflict. Retzsch's foundational set crucially engenders parody, and inspires the stage, literature, and three-dimensional objects, well beyond common perceptions of print culture's influence. This book is available in open access thanks to an Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) grant.