Goethe and Anna Amalia: a forbidden love

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In this study Ghibellino sets out to show that the platonic relationship between Goethe and Charlotte von Stein – lady-in-waiting to Anna Amalia, the Dowager Duchess of Weimar – was used as part of a cover-up for Goethe’s intense and prolonged love relationship with the Duchess Anna Amalia herself. The book attempts to uncover a hitherto closely guarded state secret. Readers convinced by the evidence supporting Ghibellino’s hypothesis will see in it one of the very great love stories in European history – to rank with that of Dante and Beatrice, and Petrarch and Laura.