# Is "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (The World as Will and Representation)" by Arthur Schopenhauer a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (The World as Will and Representation) by Arthur Schopenhauer (F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1819) is identified by: A single volume, 8vo (recorded between approx. The census claim is confirmed, with one nuance it omits: the German first is F.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- A single volume, 8vo (recorded between approx
- 197 x 118 mm and 213 x 123 mm), collating xvi, 725, [1] errata, [2] blank pp
- F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig; the title page is dated 1819 but the book was actually issued in December 1818, Schopenhauer having completed the text in March 1818 — the standard year-end post-dating, and the single most misquoted fact about the book
- The full title, 'Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung: vier Bücher, nebst einem Anhange, der die Kritik der Kantischen Philosophie enthält', states the structure of the first edition: four books plus the appendix criticising Kant, in 71 sections
- That single-volume, four-books-plus-appendix structure distinguishes the first at a glance from the two-volume 1844 second
- Issued in plain German boards; copies are recorded in contemporary grey to grey-black boards with a red spine title label
- Publisher imprint reads F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Arthur Schopenhauer |
| Publisher | F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig |
| Year | 1819 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | A single volume, 8vo (recorded between approx |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
A single volume, 8vo (recorded between approx. 197 x 118 mm and 213 x 123 mm), collating xvi, 725, [1] errata, [2] blank pp. F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig; the title page is dated 1819 but the book was actually issued in December 1818, Schopenhauer having completed the text in March 1818 — the standard year-end post-dating, and the single most misquoted fact about the book. The full title, 'Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung: vier Bücher, nebst einem Anhange, der die Kritik der Kantischen Philosophie enthält', states the structure of the first edition: four books plus the appendix criticising Kant, in 71 sections. That single-volume, four-books-plus-appendix structure distinguishes the first at a glance from the two-volume 1844 second. Issued in plain German boards; copies are recorded in contemporary grey to grey-black boards with a red spine title label. Printed in 750 copies. Grisebach's 'Edita und inedita Schopenhaueriana' records that fewer than 100 had sold by 9 February 1820 and that 150 remained in the publisher's warehouse on 29 November 1828, the bulk of the remainder being pulped later — the sheets are scarce through destruction, not through a small printing.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed, with one nuance it omits: the German first is F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig, title page 1819 but published December 1818, and it is the only edition with precedence — there is no earlier or simultaneous foreign edition. The 1844 Brockhaus second is not a simple reprint and is collected in its own right: it is in two volumes, vol. I a revised text of the 1819 and vol. II entirely new supplementary essays appearing for the first time, so it is the first edition of vol. II. The 1859 third edition is further enlarged. First English: 'The World as Will and Idea', translated by R. B. Haldane and J. Kemp, 3 vols, Trübner & Co., London, 1883-86 — the census's imprint and dates are confirmed. That Trübner set is the first English edition proper, not a 'first thus', and is the edition collected by those taking the work in English.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue applies to an 1819 Leipzig imprint. The live traps are the enlarged 1844 two-volume Brockhaus second and the 1859 Brockhaus third — both easily miscatalogued as 'the first edition' because vol. I carries the 1819 text in revised form; the volume count settles it, the first being a single volume. The modern Meiner 'Kritische Jubiläumsausgabe der ersten Auflage von 1819', which reprints the first-edition text with Schopenhauer's hand-copy additions, is a scholarly reissue and 'first thus' only despite its title.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (The World as Will and Representation)* by Arthur Schopenhauer a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/die-welt-als-wille-und-vorstellung-the-world-as-will-and-rep
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.