I have never read Hegel. This is not something I’m proud of – it’s a small confession.
From time to time (by coincidence) I read essays and articles about Hegel, but that’s about it.
In this week’s New Yorker James Wood reviews the new translation of “War and Peace”.
In this review he writes: ‘Tolstoy objected to the way Napoleon’s solipsism and vanity (“It was clear that only what went on in his soul was of interest to him,” he writes) was indulged by so much nineteenth-century historical writing, which essentially agreed with Hegel’s quip that Napoleon was the World Spirit on horseback.’ I never expected Hegel to quip, certainly not about the World Spirit. And I wonder where exactly Hegel had written this sentence. Was it in his diaries? Or in a footnote to a meticulous essay? If anybody knows where exactly in Hegel’s work this quip can be found I’m willing to make the finder very happy.