German poet, dramatist, novelist, translator, scientist, and musician, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was the last universal genius of the West and a master of world literature, the author of The Sorrows of Young Werther, Wilhelm Meister, and Faust. Nowhere else can one encounter a more penetrating, many-sided, and personal Goethe than in the extraordinary Conversations (1836) by Johann Peter Eckermann (1792-1854), a German author and scholar as well as Goethe's friend, archivist, and editor. Although only thirty-one when first meeting the seventy-four-year-old...
German poet, dramatist, novelist, translator, scientist, and musician, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was the last universal genius of the Wes...
Goethe's classic, enlivened by Randall Jarrell's fine translation and Peter Sis's dark, dreamy illustrations
Randall Jarrell's translation of Faust is one of his most important achievements. In 1957 he inscribed Goethe's motto on the first page of his notebook--"Ohne Hast aber ohne Rast" ("Without haste but without rest")--and from then until his death in 1965 he worked on the masterpiece of his "own favorite daemon, dear good great Goethe." His intent was to make the German poetry free, unrhymed poetry in English. He all but finished the job before he died, and...
Goethe's classic, enlivened by Randall Jarrell's fine translation and Peter Sis's dark, dreamy illustrations
An overnight sensation upon its 1774 publication, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" became one of the first European best-sellers and secured its young author both fortune and fame. Loosely based on Goethe's personal experiences, the novel is written mostly in the form of letters in which Werther recounts his unrequited love for a married woman. Its "Sturm und Drang" style, portraying the rebellion of youthful genius against conventional standards, makes it a perennial favorite with readers of every era. Includes the original German with English translation on the facing pages.
An overnight sensation upon its 1774 publication, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" became one of the first European best-sellers and secured its young a...
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Johann Wolfgang Vo LuAnn Walther
When this book was published in 1774, it inspired a mass cult of feelings (and reputedly a few suicides) and made its author one of the first literary celebrities. It is a story of a tormented young man whose fixation on an inaccessible woman culminates in tragedy may be read as a celebration of unfettered emotion or as a mercilessly accurate portrait of a man whose dedication to pure feeling turns him into a monster.
When this book was published in 1774, it inspired a mass cult of feelings (and reputedly a few suicides) and made its author one of the first literary...
Translated by Ellen von Nardroff and Ernest H. von Nardroff
The reflections on art and literature that Goethe produced throughout his life are the premise and corollary of his work as poet, novelist, and man of science. This volume contains such important essays as "On Gothic Architecture," "On the Laocoon Group," and "Shakespeare: A Tribute." Several works in this collection appear for the first time unabridged and in fresh translations.
Translated by Ellen von Nardroff and Ernest H. von Nardroff
The reflections on art and literature that Goethe produced throughout his li...
Goethe was a master of the short prose form. His two narrative cycles, Conversations of German Refugees and Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years, both written during a high point of his career, address various social issues and reveal his experimentation with narrative and perspective. A traditional cycle of novellas, Conversations of German Refugees deals with the impact and significance of the French Revolution and suggests Goethe's ideas on the social function of his art. Goethe's last novel, Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years, is a sequel to Wilhelm...
Goethe was a master of the short prose form. His two narrative cycles, Conversations of German Refugees and Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman ...
Containing three of Goethe's major prose works, this volume explores a range of themes: unfulfilled love, infidelity, divorce, tragic love, fantasy, and moral rebirth. One of Goethe's best known works, The Sorrows of Young Werther, explores the extremes of the subjective experience through the novel's depiction of a sensitive young man caught up in a love impossible to fulfill. In Elective Affinities, a novel of tragic love, Goethe employs all the requisites of sentimental romance to give a deeply ironic perspective to the idea of love. As the title indicates,...
Containing three of Goethe's major prose works, this volume explores a range of themes: unfulfilled love, infidelity, divorce, tragic love, fantasy...
The German Library is a new series of the major works of German literature and thought from medieval times to the present. The volumes have forewords by internationally known writers and introductions by prominent scholars. Here the English-speaking reader can find the broadest possible collection of poetic and intellectual achievements in new as well as great classic translations. Convenient and accessible in format, the volumes of The German Library will form the core of any growing library of European literature for years to come.
The German Library is a new series of the major works of German literature and thought from medieval times to the present. The volumes have forewor...
In 1768, at the age of nineteen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe began to study hermetic literature. This exploration had a huge impact on the early aesthetic education of Europe's great man of letters, the last renaissance titan. In the years that followed, Goethe immersed himself in the hermetic tradition, and even set up an alchemic laboratory and attempted to make an elixir of immortality. Although he eventually gave up his alchemical experiments, he was to believe in the validity of the Great Work for the rest of his life.
Alchemic symbolism is prominent in many of Goethe's works,...
In 1768, at the age of nineteen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe began to study hermetic literature. This exploration had a huge impact on the early aes...