Memories

The story speaks for itself. Without plot, incidents or situations, it is nevertheless dramatically constructed, unflagging in interest, abounding in beauty, grace and pathos, and filled with the tenderest feeling of sympathy, which will go straight to the heart of every lover of the ideal in the world of humanity, and every worshiper in the world of nature. Its brief essays upon theology, literature, and social habits, contained in the dialogues between the hero and the heroine, will commend themselves to the thoughtful reader by their clearness and beauty of statement, as well as by their freedom from prejudice. Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900) was an Anglo-German orientalist and comparative philologist. He was a theologian who also wrote and translated books about the religions and sacred texts of the Far East, such as Buddhism and Confucianism. In 1898 he received the high honor of being made a Privy Councillor, and in1899 he published Auld Lang Syne. This is a personal account relating his interpretations and memories of his interactions with great historic figures of the day (including the great figures of classical European literature and music) and his impressions of the cultural, artistic, and political mood in Europe, as well as grand wars and conflicts dealt with by the royals of Prussia and other powers of the mid to late 1800s.