What lies in wait at the nexus of heartbreak and unrequited love? In teasing out the answer to this question, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe produced The Sorrows of Young Werther, one of history’s first bestsellers and the book that would propel Goethe to celebrity status and the heights of the Sturm and Drang movement that defined Germany’s literary scene during the late 1700s.The novel follows Werther, a young and sensitive artist, through his letters writte...

The definitive English version of three landmark works of world literatureContaining 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

Authoritative English translations of Goethe’s most illuminating essays on scienceGoethe’s scientific work may be less familiar to the reading public than his poetry, yet his understanding of natural phenomena displays the same sensitivity and brilliance as his depictions of human relationships. Based on Goethe’s research in anatomy, botany, physics, chemistry, zoology, meteorology, and geology, these forty selections reflect Goethe’s conviction that scientists mus...

An authoritative English translation of Goethe’s correspondence and diary entries from his travels in ItalyContaining the letters and diaries that Goethe wrote during his journey to Italy at age thirty-seven, Italian Journey reveals his tremendous range of interests. His writings cover literature, art history and his own struggle to be a painter, various sciences and political events, personal encounters, and the Italian landscape. “In Rome, I first found ...

Eight early plays by Goethe that revolutionized German dramaGoethe’s early plays bear witness to his urgent desire to enliven German theater, an ambition that followed him to the National Theater in Weimar, where he was named director in the early 1790s. Early Verse Drama and Prose Plays brings together eight of these plays, written between 1771 and 1787. Not only do they demonstrate Goethe’s unprecedented versatility in experimenting with new forms of dra...

Authoritative English translations of Goethe’s most illuminating essays on art and literatureGoethe’s lifelong reflections on art and literature serve as the foundation of his work as a poet, novelist, and man of science. Anyone interested in the history of European literary criticism, art, archaeology, or the theater will find great reward in exploring these remarkable essays. This volume features such important writings as “On Gothic Architecture,” “On the La...

The definitive English version of a timeless masterpieceOne of the great classics of European literature, Faust is Goethe’s most complex and profound work. To tell the dramatic and tragic story of one man’s pact with the Devil in exchange for knowledge and power, Goethe drew from an immense variety of cultural and historical material, and a wealth of poetic and theatrical traditions. What results is a tour de force illustrating Goethe’s own moral and artis...

This authoritative English translation of Goethe’s memoirs paints a vibrant picture of his youth and formative yearsCovering the period from his birth in 1749 to his departure for Weimar in 1775, Goethe recalls his childhood and youth as the son of well-to-do, middle-class parents, his education and literary awakening, his early loves, and the creation and reception of works from his Sturm und Drang years such as The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goetz von...

An authoritative English translation of Goethe’s classic autobiographical account of war and conquest in the age of revolutionIn August 1792, Goethe accompanied Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, during the unsuccessful Prusso-Austrian invasion of revolutionary France to restore Louis XVI as king. The French subsequently invaded the Rhineland and captured the city of Mainz, claiming it for the French Republic. When German armies besieged Mainz, Goethe...

The definitive English version of two landmark works of world literatureGoethe 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 impa...

Five enduring works that demonstrate Goethe’s mastery of poetic form and engagement with neoclassical idealsThis volume presents the four plays and the narrative poem that, along with Faust, established Goethe as one of the masters of European verse drama and epic. These timeless works display a balance between poetic form and ethical sensibility that characterizes much of Goethe’s work during the era of Weimar Classicism. Verse Plays and Epic fea...

The definitive English version of a landmark of world literatureWilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (1795–1796), Goethe’s second novel, is a foundational work in the history of the genre—perhaps the first Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story focusing on the growth and self-realization of the main character. The story centers on Wilhelm, a young man living in the mid-1700s who strives to break free from the restrictive bourgeois world of his upbringing and see...