Goethe’s Longing and Napoleon’s lost linen
TOP LOT in this comparatively modest sale of Continental books and manuscripts at Sothebys on June 11, at £52,000 to a European dealer, was an autograph manuscript of one of Goethe’s more celebrated poems, Sehnsucht, (Longing) dated to c.1802-03.
Part of his Lieder collection, it is a poem that has been set to music by a number of composers, but…