In 2004 Ettore Ghibellino published his provocative thesis that Goethe s beloved was not Charlotte von Stein but the Dowager Duchess, Anna Amalia. Ghibellino claimed that Charlotte, the former lady-in-waiting of Anna Amalia, acted as a straw woman and that the many letters, and the love they expressed, were really meant for Anna Amalia herself. Dan Farrelly, who translated Ghibellino s book, has been preoccupied with this thesis since 2005. Here he has undertaken a meticulous re-reading of Goethe s letters to Charlotte von Stein from 1776 to 1786. He analyses the whereabouts of Charlotte and Anna Amalia at any given time, including their journeys, and concludes that Charlotte was the real addressee of the letters. This amounts to a refutation of one of Ghibellino s central arguments. This book is to be recommended as a further contribution to discussion of Goethe s early Weimar period. Ilse Nagelschmidt, Leipzig