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Selected Works: Sorrows of Young Werther: WITH Elective Affinities, Faust and Italian Journey (Everyman's Library classics) by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1999) Hardcover
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First published September 23, 1999
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About the author
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
13.4k books7,000 followersA master of poetry, drama, and the novel, German writer and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent 50 years on his two-part dramatic poem
Faust
, published in 1808 and 1832, also conducted scientific research in various fields, notably botany, and held several governmental positions.
George Eliot called him "Germany's greatest man of letters... and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Works span the fields of literature, theology, and humanism.
People laud this magnum opus as one of the peaks of world literature. Other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .
With this key figure of German literature, the movement of Weimar classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries coincided with Enlightenment, sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang, and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours , he influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology. He also long served as the privy councilor ("Geheimrat") of the duchy of Weimar.
Goethe took great interest in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, and Arabia and originated the concept of Weltliteratur ("world literature"). Despite his major, virtually immeasurable influence on German philosophy especially on the generation of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, he expressly and decidedly refrained from practicing philosophy in the rarefied sense.
Influence spread across Europe, and for the next century, his works inspired much music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Many persons consider Goethe the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in western culture as well. Early in his career, however, he wondered about painting, perhaps his true vocation; late in his life, he expressed the expectation that people ultimately would remember his work in optics.
George Eliot called him "Germany's greatest man of letters... and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Works span the fields of literature, theology, and humanism.
People laud this magnum opus as one of the peaks of world literature. Other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .
With this key figure of German literature, the movement of Weimar classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries coincided with Enlightenment, sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang, and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours , he influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology. He also long served as the privy councilor ("Geheimrat") of the duchy of Weimar.
Goethe took great interest in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, and Arabia and originated the concept of Weltliteratur ("world literature"). Despite his major, virtually immeasurable influence on German philosophy especially on the generation of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, he expressly and decidedly refrained from practicing philosophy in the rarefied sense.
Influence spread across Europe, and for the next century, his works inspired much music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Many persons consider Goethe the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in western culture as well. Early in his career, however, he wondered about painting, perhaps his true vocation; late in his life, he expressed the expectation that people ultimately would remember his work in optics.
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January 19, 2022Meine Herren, the only reason why this review is so long is because there is much to talk about. This collection of works serves as a great introduction (well, as great as one can get in translation) to an author whose reputation often precedes him, bar one quite significant complaint. Well two, but the second is just a personal preference. The works contained in this volume are The Sorrows of Young Werther, Elective Affinities, Italian Journey, Novella, Faust 1&2, Selected Poems (bilingual) and Letters. I for one would have preferred Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship in place of Goethe's Italian Journey, but seen in another light those who really want to read Wilhelm Meister will eventually seek it out on their own whilst they may never have any great impetus for seeking out the Italian Journey by itself. Also, in the way that the selections are organized in this edition, we have an epistolary novel, a prose novel, an edited memoir in letters, a short story, a play, and poetry all in one volume. Rarely have I seen so many different forms of literature brought together, all written by one person, and each of them done with flying colors. The translations are good to excellent (though see the 3rd paragraph), significantly with the famous poet W.H. Auden at the helm of the Italian Journey, as well as some very readable and occasionally fanciful translations for other works. Admittedly I do not know German and have not read any other translations of the poems, but my sensibility agreed very much with them and they are possibly the most enjoyable part of the whole book that had me wanting to read some again and again. An alternative is the other collection "The Essential Goethe", which does include Wilhelm Meister and some plays, at the expense of Elective Affinities, the 2nd parts of both Faust and the Italian Journey, and most importantly, Werther.
I also say this without any pretension: the introduction is the best I've read, up there along with Umberto Eco's for Monte Cristo and Bernard Knox's for The Iliad. It does what every introduction ought to do and more. It is nearly 50 pages long of actually significant information, historical analysis, and literary criticism split into 3 parts, the first 2 which are free of spoilers, miraculous for an introduction to classical works. The first part is a short biography, very illuminating and surprisingly detailed for its length, and more importantly provides context for the selected poems and their respective periods, such as Storm and Stress or Weimar Classicism, that are nearly essential for getting the full value out of them. More interestingly it provides an interpretation of a Goethe that is not in fact "larger-than-life" but one whose life has been surprisingly marked by setbacks, such as the frequent troubles with romance, upheaval from the Napoleonic eras, and disconnect from the rest of the German literary world despite everything, especially after the death of Schiller. This is just part of the reason why Goethe has been claimed to be so unique, also demonstrated by his variety of works. The next section is the most humorous, talking in detail about the rise, fall, and (far too belated) rise again of Goethe's shadow of a reputation in the English speaking world, citing fascinating details and arguments as well as quotes from Carlyle, Ford Maddox Ford, and T.S. Eliot, some praising him, some quite harshly denouncing. Here is an interesting piece of trivia I know that is not in the introduction: Liszt never really liked Goethe and his Faust despite writing his famous tone poem on it, saying he much preferred heroes like Manfred, though he acknowledges Faust to be of a different makeup and higher complexity. The conductor for the premier of the Faust symphony considered it a failure and often nigh incoherent, though one can see why with its very 20th-century atonal sensibilities in the "Mephistopheles" movement, but it was deservedly rehabilitated, much like Goethe's reputation in England. Lastly the introduction has some nice remarks from Goethe himself on his works as well as interpretations for some more cryptic writings like Elective Affinities and the Novella, plus reasons not to completely believe the order which the events occurred in the Italian Journey. Notably in the section about Faust, there is an extra dimension in its interpretation that I have not considered at all which even David Luke's fantastic introduction to his translation of Faust seems to have glossed over, and that is perhaps the true meaning of why Faust is subtitled "a tragedy" in both parts.
However, despite all that, Faust, practically Goethe's magnum opus, comes in a prose translation by Barker Fairley. Come, come, what is this now? Not even my obvious bias towards Everyman's Library excuses this. And no, not a good prose translation despite everything. To the sensitive reader who values inflection, character, and literary beauty in their dialogue, Faust is rendered nearly unreadable as it is a play and there are no purely narrative passages. Goethe's wonderfully structured lines such as that of the dedication, the poet's nostalgic outburst, and Faust's speeches among others are now flat, uninteresting, and a chore to get through. Because of the way the poetry is in the original, each line not necessarily having to seamlessly connect to the one before it like they would need to in a sentence, an incredibly choppy and off-putting effect is made when read out like one in the translation. Of course, sometimes Goethe's brilliance in language still shines through and there can be some pretty words to amuse the reader. The only other upside is that the lines are sometimes more comprehensible in prose, though that's only if you're a poetry-let. I was fairly enthusiastic too about rereading Faust so soon, but I did not make it past the second scene change of Part I. In any case it is still possible to read, and one can even notice some subtleties which they could have missed in the distraction of poetry, but really, in Part II there are parts where the structure in which the play is written plays an explicit part in the narrative, and here it is scarified completely. I would earnestly recommend David Luke's translations of both parts published by Oxford instead.
Unfortunately, I do not work for Everyman's Library (I would surely have them publish some Pessoa and Hamsun in hardcover), but by all means still do pick up this book if you're looking for a solid collection of Goethe in an edition that will last instead of just skimping and buying used paperbacks of Werther and whatnot, as well as some things one would likely never seek out in book form or even read online like the introduction and Goethe's Novella. My individual thoughts of the works (if you have not seen them already) are typed out in the short progress updates which I do not care to expand upon here, and if something new did occur to me I would write a review under the work's unique edition. Now, if I were you Knopf, Random House, whatever, I would have put Wilhelm Meister in this edition and have published Faust separately, making you a bit of profit in two ways despite the extra work of getting another novel in print. Obviously not very many people are buying this edition, but I believe a Faust one would surely sell well in your hardcover classics series; slap a neat painting on it and people might even be inspired to pick up this one here as well, now thinner and easier to bind without Faust in it. Perhaps ultimately the license for a good translation was too expensive. But by god, the verse one in the public domain on Gutenberg would have sufficed! Ironic that the English publishers (though their books are supposedly printed in Germany lmao) made such a lapse of judgement on their usual quality of translations when the introduction made a good case for why Goethe has been so neglected in the anglophone world in the first place. Regardless, this book had the potential for being one of my favorites of all time as an extraordinary life, rightly said to be singular in history, is laid bare to us through his works alone. Still, this review long enough and I've restarted it twice, and Goethe himself would surely admonish me for spending so much time on this bit of hero worship and not constantly seeking out new avenues and new modes of literature, so for now my fling with Goethe is ended and I move on to new pastures, namely Melville and Sterne, whose writings are in a language that I have known my whole life but provide every opportunity to be made new to me for the first time. So farewell.
I also say this without any pretension: the introduction is the best I've read, up there along with Umberto Eco's for Monte Cristo and Bernard Knox's for The Iliad. It does what every introduction ought to do and more. It is nearly 50 pages long of actually significant information, historical analysis, and literary criticism split into 3 parts, the first 2 which are free of spoilers, miraculous for an introduction to classical works. The first part is a short biography, very illuminating and surprisingly detailed for its length, and more importantly provides context for the selected poems and their respective periods, such as Storm and Stress or Weimar Classicism, that are nearly essential for getting the full value out of them. More interestingly it provides an interpretation of a Goethe that is not in fact "larger-than-life" but one whose life has been surprisingly marked by setbacks, such as the frequent troubles with romance, upheaval from the Napoleonic eras, and disconnect from the rest of the German literary world despite everything, especially after the death of Schiller. This is just part of the reason why Goethe has been claimed to be so unique, also demonstrated by his variety of works. The next section is the most humorous, talking in detail about the rise, fall, and (far too belated) rise again of Goethe's shadow of a reputation in the English speaking world, citing fascinating details and arguments as well as quotes from Carlyle, Ford Maddox Ford, and T.S. Eliot, some praising him, some quite harshly denouncing. Here is an interesting piece of trivia I know that is not in the introduction: Liszt never really liked Goethe and his Faust despite writing his famous tone poem on it, saying he much preferred heroes like Manfred, though he acknowledges Faust to be of a different makeup and higher complexity. The conductor for the premier of the Faust symphony considered it a failure and often nigh incoherent, though one can see why with its very 20th-century atonal sensibilities in the "Mephistopheles" movement, but it was deservedly rehabilitated, much like Goethe's reputation in England. Lastly the introduction has some nice remarks from Goethe himself on his works as well as interpretations for some more cryptic writings like Elective Affinities and the Novella, plus reasons not to completely believe the order which the events occurred in the Italian Journey. Notably in the section about Faust, there is an extra dimension in its interpretation that I have not considered at all which even David Luke's fantastic introduction to his translation of Faust seems to have glossed over, and that is perhaps the true meaning of why Faust is subtitled "a tragedy" in both parts.
However, despite all that, Faust, practically Goethe's magnum opus, comes in a prose translation by Barker Fairley. Come, come, what is this now? Not even my obvious bias towards Everyman's Library excuses this. And no, not a good prose translation despite everything. To the sensitive reader who values inflection, character, and literary beauty in their dialogue, Faust is rendered nearly unreadable as it is a play and there are no purely narrative passages. Goethe's wonderfully structured lines such as that of the dedication, the poet's nostalgic outburst, and Faust's speeches among others are now flat, uninteresting, and a chore to get through. Because of the way the poetry is in the original, each line not necessarily having to seamlessly connect to the one before it like they would need to in a sentence, an incredibly choppy and off-putting effect is made when read out like one in the translation. Of course, sometimes Goethe's brilliance in language still shines through and there can be some pretty words to amuse the reader. The only other upside is that the lines are sometimes more comprehensible in prose, though that's only if you're a poetry-let. I was fairly enthusiastic too about rereading Faust so soon, but I did not make it past the second scene change of Part I. In any case it is still possible to read, and one can even notice some subtleties which they could have missed in the distraction of poetry, but really, in Part II there are parts where the structure in which the play is written plays an explicit part in the narrative, and here it is scarified completely. I would earnestly recommend David Luke's translations of both parts published by Oxford instead.
Unfortunately, I do not work for Everyman's Library (I would surely have them publish some Pessoa and Hamsun in hardcover), but by all means still do pick up this book if you're looking for a solid collection of Goethe in an edition that will last instead of just skimping and buying used paperbacks of Werther and whatnot, as well as some things one would likely never seek out in book form or even read online like the introduction and Goethe's Novella. My individual thoughts of the works (if you have not seen them already) are typed out in the short progress updates which I do not care to expand upon here, and if something new did occur to me I would write a review under the work's unique edition. Now, if I were you Knopf, Random House, whatever, I would have put Wilhelm Meister in this edition and have published Faust separately, making you a bit of profit in two ways despite the extra work of getting another novel in print. Obviously not very many people are buying this edition, but I believe a Faust one would surely sell well in your hardcover classics series; slap a neat painting on it and people might even be inspired to pick up this one here as well, now thinner and easier to bind without Faust in it. Perhaps ultimately the license for a good translation was too expensive. But by god, the verse one in the public domain on Gutenberg would have sufficed! Ironic that the English publishers (though their books are supposedly printed in Germany lmao) made such a lapse of judgement on their usual quality of translations when the introduction made a good case for why Goethe has been so neglected in the anglophone world in the first place. Regardless, this book had the potential for being one of my favorites of all time as an extraordinary life, rightly said to be singular in history, is laid bare to us through his works alone. Still, this review long enough and I've restarted it twice, and Goethe himself would surely admonish me for spending so much time on this bit of hero worship and not constantly seeking out new avenues and new modes of literature, so for now my fling with Goethe is ended and I move on to new pastures, namely Melville and Sterne, whose writings are in a language that I have known my whole life but provide every opportunity to be made new to me for the first time. So farewell.
August 10, 2023
გოეთე მსოფლიოს დიდი საჩუქარი, ზეპოეტი. სამყაროს უკეთილშობილესი ბაბუა, რომელიც სამყაროს უძველეს სიბრძნეს და ისტორიებს აცოცხლებს.
ილია ჭავჭავაძეს უთქვამს მასზე მიუკარებელი მწვერვალიაო. მართლა მწვერვალია, და ამ მწვერვალიდან ყველაფერს ხედავს, ყველა ქვეყნის ამბებს და სიბრძნეს და ყველა მხრიდანაც ჩანს გოეთე, შეუძლებელია არ მოგიწიოს გოეთესთან შეხება.
თანაც შეუძლებელია რამე ავნო, განა არ ცდილობდნენ გოეთე გაეკიცხათ? ამას წინათ მეგობარს ვუზიარებდი შთაბეჭდილებებს და მან ქების საპირისპიროდ თქვა რომ მას 16 წლის გოგო ყავდა საყვარლად 82 წლის ასაკში. რა სულელური დადანაშაულებაა, მე რომ 16 წლის გოგო ვიყო თანახმა ვიქნებოდი გოეთესთვის სიბერეში მომეარა. ასე ამბობდნენ და კიდევ იტყვიან გოეთეს შესახებ რაღაცეებს რომ რამე ავნონ მაგრამ გოეთე მიუკარებელი მწვერვალია რომელიც მრავალი საუკუნე იდგება იქ სადაც არის შეუდრეკლად.
აკაკი გელოვანის ნათარგმნია და მის თარგმანში არ დაკარგულა გოეთესეული მითოლიგიზირება, პირიქით ძალიან კარგად გამოჩნდა. მოუხდა აკაკის ნათარგმნი.
გამოვარჩევდი „პრომეთე“, „ეპიგრამები“, „დასავლურ-აღმოსავლური დივანი“, „ბალადები“, „ვილჰელმ მაისტერი“. საკმაოდ ბევრი რამ ეწერა ამ კრებულში და საკმაოდ დიდხანსაც ვკითხულობდი. ვფიქრობ გოეთე ამ კრებულით გავიცანი კარგად, მარტო ფაუსტი საკმარისი არ ყოფილა.
გოეთე ის პოეტია რომელმაც პირველად დამაფიქრა ლექსის ზეპირად სწავლაზე. ისეთი პოეტია სულ მინდა რომ გვერდით მყავდეს და ვინმეს რომ რამეს ვუხსნი, სულ გოეთეს ციტატები მოვიშველიო ლექსებიდან. კეთილ ბაბუად მეგულება რომელიც, ჩემს ანცობებს და ცელქობებს ახალისებს.
პირველად მომინდა გერმანულის სწავლა და გოეთეს ორიგინალში წაკითხვა.
გოეთე ორიგინალში იქნება სასწაული. შეიძლება ვისწავლო კიდეც გერმანული, ჯერ კიდევ ბევრი დროა წინ.
ბოლოს ვიცოდი რომ ფაუსტიდან იყო ნაწყვეტები, მეგონა რომ ბევრი იქნებოდა, მაგრამ ძალიან ცოტა აღმოჩნდა და მაგან გატეხა.
კრებულის ბოლოს თითოეულ ლექსზე, ძალიან საინტერესო კომენტარები ქონდა.
შეიძლება ზეპირად არც ვისწავლო გოეთეს არცერთი ლექსი, მაგრამ მჯერა გოეთეს სიბრძნე სულ ჩემში იქნება.
„ღამე ნების, ჩემო კარგო სიმღერებო,
მაშ იძინეთ ჩემი ხალხის გულში მშვიდად“
ილია ჭავჭავაძეს უთქვამს მასზე მიუკარებელი მწვერვალიაო. მართლა მწვერვალია, და ამ მწვერვალიდან ყველაფერს ხედავს, ყველა ქვეყნის ამბებს და სიბრძნეს და ყველა მხრიდანაც ჩანს გოეთე, შეუძლებელია არ მოგიწიოს გოეთესთან შეხება.
თანაც შეუძლებელია რამე ავნო, განა არ ცდილობდნენ გოეთე გაეკიცხათ? ამას წინათ მეგობარს ვუზიარებდი შთაბეჭდილებებს და მან ქების საპირისპიროდ თქვა რომ მას 16 წლის გოგო ყავდა საყვარლად 82 წლის ასაკში. რა სულელური დადანაშაულებაა, მე რომ 16 წლის გოგო ვიყო თანახმა ვიქნებოდი გოეთესთვის სიბერეში მომეარა. ასე ამბობდნენ და კიდევ იტყვიან გოეთეს შესახებ რაღაცეებს რომ რამე ავნონ მაგრამ გოეთე მიუკარებელი მწვერვალია რომელიც მრავალი საუკუნე იდგება იქ სადაც არის შეუდრეკლად.
აკაკი გელოვანის ნათარგმნია და მის თარგმანში არ დაკარგულა გოეთესეული მითოლიგიზირება, პირიქით ძალიან კარგად გამოჩნდა. მოუხდა აკაკის ნათარგმნი.
გამოვარჩევდი „პრომეთე“, „ეპიგრამები“, „დასავლურ-აღმოსავლური დივანი“, „ბალადები“, „ვილჰელმ მაისტერი“. საკმაოდ ბევრი რამ ეწერა ამ კრებულში და საკმაოდ დიდხანსაც ვკითხულობდი. ვფიქრობ გოეთე ამ კრებულით გავიცანი კარგად, მარტო ფაუსტი საკმარისი არ ყოფილა.
გოეთე ის პოეტია რომელმაც პირველად დამაფიქრა ლექსის ზეპირად სწავლაზე. ისეთი პოეტია სულ მინდა რომ გვერდით მყავდეს და ვინმეს რომ რამეს ვუხსნი, სულ გოეთეს ციტატები მოვიშველიო ლექსებიდან. კეთილ ბაბუად მეგულება რომელიც, ჩემს ანცობებს და ცელქობებს ახალისებს.
პირველად მომინდა გერმანულის სწავლა და გოეთეს ორიგინალში წაკითხვა.
გოეთე ორიგინალში იქნება სასწაული. შეიძლება ვისწავლო კიდეც გერმანული, ჯერ კიდევ ბევრი დროა წინ.
ბოლოს ვიცოდი რომ ფაუსტიდან იყო ნაწყვეტები, მეგონა რომ ბევრი იქნებოდა, მაგრამ ძალიან ცოტა აღმოჩნდა და მაგან გატეხა.
კრებულის ბოლოს თითოეულ ლექსზე, ძალიან საინტერესო კომენტარები ქონდა.
შეიძლება ზეპირად არც ვისწავლო გოეთეს არცერთი ლექსი, მაგრამ მჯერა გოეთეს სიბრძნე სულ ჩემში იქნება.
„ღამე ნების, ჩემო კარგო სიმღერებო,
მაშ იძინეთ ჩემი ხალხის გულში მშვიდად“
April 16, 2020
As you know, there is a difference between a codex (a papery thing with pages in), and a book (a longish assemblage of words, maps, diagrams, illustrations, formulae, or some combination thereof, that, these days, doesn't even need to take physical form). It's not, except to collectors, archivists and other people of that stamp, generally that important a distinction. It becomes important if some well-meaning individual binds several books together, and since whoever designed Goodreads didn't consider the possibility that might happen, I've bit of a dilemma.
You see, this volume contains a good (probably) cross-section of Goethe's literary output. There are two novels, a play, a travel diary, a novella, some letters, and a great tranche of poetry that I freely confess I've only skimmed.
Judge me. Go on. I know I have no ear for poetry; I know poetry in translation never quite survives the process; and I know - oh how I know - that my three words of German are not going to allow me to read the original, even if I thought I'd appreciate it, which I don't. Great poetry-appreciating minds have enjoyed it, great composers have set it to music, I defer to their judgement.
Moreover, the works in this volume are really quite varied, and I don't want to just slap a generic star-rating on them without trying to break it down a bit. So I'm going to try to do just that. I also have an urge to rant about Werther, so sorry about that.
THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER
In my universe this is a solid one star. In fact it may be pushing into negative territory with things like the execrable Couple Next Door (my current most loathed book). That's down to Werther himself, who is a character I can't even bring myself to hate let alone care about, and that in turn is down to my tastes, and my character, and is therefore firmly My Fault.
See? I admit it. My fault. Can't be Goethe's, he was a genius.
A sensible human being would, faced with an epistolary novel with a lead character (and therefore first-person narrator) he finds both a hopeless bore and an irritating whiner would gently turn to the next book. I'm not a sensible human being, I'm an incurable and bloody-minded optimist, so I read the whole damned thing. I believe that even a bad book can redeem itself in articulo mortis (if that's the phrase I want), and Goethe was, after all, a Great German Genius.
No, really, in spite of Werther, which is an early work, I do still believe that.
I also believe, quite firmly, that if it weren't for The Sorrows of Young Werther, many of the novels that I do like, and that I rate really quite highly, would not have been written. That would be a great loss for humanity, or at least this particular subset of it.
So, if we lay my aversion to Our Hero very briefly to one side, is it any good?
Well... Maybe. A bit. It's the sort of setup Dostoyevsky loved to get his inky paws on, a tale of obsessive, impossible, unrequited love by a personality incapable of change. The trouble is that unchangeable personality is Werther.
Werther moons about being all Artistic and Romantic, then moons about being all moody and loved-up, then moons about being a pain in the backside to everyone around him, and then shoots himself. The alternative of finding a job, a life, and a girlfriend who isn't married to one of his friends seems not to occur to him, which is possibly how love works. He's one of those people you just want to slap.
Actually, it's exactly how teenage love does work, thinking about it. Generally without the suicide, which is why we're all still here.
Werther is an intelligent, arty-pretentious, moronic, hormonal adolescent.
Maybe I'm too old to appreciate him.
ELECTIVE AFFINITIES
Has to be at least a three, doesn't it? A high three. I mean, I'd give it at least two stars for not being Werther.
That was unfair. I withdraw that last comment.
This is another story about love, eventually tragic. It's also a story about what happens if you introduce new personalities into an established relationship. I wasn't so keen on the ending, but I suppose it had to finish somehow.
ITALIAN JOURNEY
Four stars for this one; it was an unexpected pleasure. The Italian Journey is Goethe's travel journal, and given that Goethe was interested in absolutely everything, and was the kind of person who sticks his head in an erupting volcano to see what it's like, is well worth reading.
NOVELLA
Maybe a lowish three??? This is the kind of writing that wavers perilously close to prose-poetry. I don't, as I said, really do poetry.
FAUST
Another four, I think.
You probably know a little about Faust anyway - the story's been plundered by enough writers and composers over the years, and the legend wasn't exactly new when Goethe got his hands on it.
Faust is a play - an enormously long mess of a play - in two parts, and it's something that illustrates very clearly Goethe's habit of drafting and redrafting, tinkering and polishing, editing, pruning and generally mucking about with his work over long periods. If you like good, strong, tightly plotted works of fiction then you will absolutely loathe it.
The background is simple enough...
The background is enormously complicated. There are two introductions. In the first, three characters... is it three? Excuse me, I just need to check...
[riffling of pages]
Director, poet and clown... yes, three.
... three characters discuss what is needed in a play. They each have different ideas, and since these are, I swear, aspects of Goethe's personality, the play tries to deliver on all three.
In the second introduction, Mephistopheles (that's the Devil) enters into a wager with The Lord (that's God) over Faust's soul, then...
No, don't worry, I'm not going to reel off the whole plot, I'm just wanted to mention a few points.
Part one is more or less coherent, and revolves around Faust regaining his youth, then seducing a pretty young woman. It seems he can't do this without help from the devil, but who am I to judge? The affair does not end well.
Part two...
Hmm... Well, the Emperor is involved somewhere, and inflationary paper money, and Helen of Troy, and a land-reclamation scheme, and really you probably just want to read it for yourself, though if you drop it and the pages get out of order, you might not even notice.
See?
Oh, and the wager? Evil wins, but good cheats, so Faust goes to heaven anyway.
Cue Mahler's Eighth Symphony.
There are funny bits. There are tragic bits. There are a couple of pageants with allegorical figures. There's a fair chunk of mythology you won't understand without a classical education or a lot of background reading. There isn't actually a bad piece of writing in it, there's just so much jumbled together it becomes a bit of a blur.
I'm going to shut up now.
SELECTED POEMS
I'm going to ignore these, though for reference that bit in The Man in the High Castle where Wegener's singing in the shower? It's Schubert's setting of the Erl King. Wegener seems to have a taste for Schubert.
SELECTED LETTERS
I'm afraid I'm not the kind of person who goes burrowing through letters, and I'm certainly not going to rate them. They add a bit of context to the other works, and there's a stray comment about Beethoven, but otherwise there's not much to say.
There. Now I can mark this as read and move on.
You see, this volume contains a good (probably) cross-section of Goethe's literary output. There are two novels, a play, a travel diary, a novella, some letters, and a great tranche of poetry that I freely confess I've only skimmed.
Judge me. Go on. I know I have no ear for poetry; I know poetry in translation never quite survives the process; and I know - oh how I know - that my three words of German are not going to allow me to read the original, even if I thought I'd appreciate it, which I don't. Great poetry-appreciating minds have enjoyed it, great composers have set it to music, I defer to their judgement.
Moreover, the works in this volume are really quite varied, and I don't want to just slap a generic star-rating on them without trying to break it down a bit. So I'm going to try to do just that. I also have an urge to rant about Werther, so sorry about that.
THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER
In my universe this is a solid one star. In fact it may be pushing into negative territory with things like the execrable Couple Next Door (my current most loathed book). That's down to Werther himself, who is a character I can't even bring myself to hate let alone care about, and that in turn is down to my tastes, and my character, and is therefore firmly My Fault.
See? I admit it. My fault. Can't be Goethe's, he was a genius.
A sensible human being would, faced with an epistolary novel with a lead character (and therefore first-person narrator) he finds both a hopeless bore and an irritating whiner would gently turn to the next book. I'm not a sensible human being, I'm an incurable and bloody-minded optimist, so I read the whole damned thing. I believe that even a bad book can redeem itself in articulo mortis (if that's the phrase I want), and Goethe was, after all, a Great German Genius.
No, really, in spite of Werther, which is an early work, I do still believe that.
I also believe, quite firmly, that if it weren't for The Sorrows of Young Werther, many of the novels that I do like, and that I rate really quite highly, would not have been written. That would be a great loss for humanity, or at least this particular subset of it.
So, if we lay my aversion to Our Hero very briefly to one side, is it any good?
Well... Maybe. A bit. It's the sort of setup Dostoyevsky loved to get his inky paws on, a tale of obsessive, impossible, unrequited love by a personality incapable of change. The trouble is that unchangeable personality is Werther.
Werther moons about being all Artistic and Romantic, then moons about being all moody and loved-up, then moons about being a pain in the backside to everyone around him, and then shoots himself. The alternative of finding a job, a life, and a girlfriend who isn't married to one of his friends seems not to occur to him, which is possibly how love works. He's one of those people you just want to slap.
Actually, it's exactly how teenage love does work, thinking about it. Generally without the suicide, which is why we're all still here.
Werther is an intelligent, arty-pretentious, moronic, hormonal adolescent.
Maybe I'm too old to appreciate him.
ELECTIVE AFFINITIES
Has to be at least a three, doesn't it? A high three. I mean, I'd give it at least two stars for not being Werther.
That was unfair. I withdraw that last comment.
This is another story about love, eventually tragic. It's also a story about what happens if you introduce new personalities into an established relationship. I wasn't so keen on the ending, but I suppose it had to finish somehow.
ITALIAN JOURNEY
Four stars for this one; it was an unexpected pleasure. The Italian Journey is Goethe's travel journal, and given that Goethe was interested in absolutely everything, and was the kind of person who sticks his head in an erupting volcano to see what it's like, is well worth reading.
NOVELLA
Maybe a lowish three??? This is the kind of writing that wavers perilously close to prose-poetry. I don't, as I said, really do poetry.
FAUST
Another four, I think.
You probably know a little about Faust anyway - the story's been plundered by enough writers and composers over the years, and the legend wasn't exactly new when Goethe got his hands on it.
Faust is a play - an enormously long mess of a play - in two parts, and it's something that illustrates very clearly Goethe's habit of drafting and redrafting, tinkering and polishing, editing, pruning and generally mucking about with his work over long periods. If you like good, strong, tightly plotted works of fiction then you will absolutely loathe it.
The background is simple enough...
The background is enormously complicated. There are two introductions. In the first, three characters... is it three? Excuse me, I just need to check...
[riffling of pages]
Director, poet and clown... yes, three.
... three characters discuss what is needed in a play. They each have different ideas, and since these are, I swear, aspects of Goethe's personality, the play tries to deliver on all three.
In the second introduction, Mephistopheles (that's the Devil) enters into a wager with The Lord (that's God) over Faust's soul, then...
No, don't worry, I'm not going to reel off the whole plot, I'm just wanted to mention a few points.
Part one is more or less coherent, and revolves around Faust regaining his youth, then seducing a pretty young woman. It seems he can't do this without help from the devil, but who am I to judge? The affair does not end well.
Part two...
Hmm... Well, the Emperor is involved somewhere, and inflationary paper money, and Helen of Troy, and a land-reclamation scheme, and really you probably just want to read it for yourself, though if you drop it and the pages get out of order, you might not even notice.
See?
Oh, and the wager? Evil wins, but good cheats, so Faust goes to heaven anyway.
Cue Mahler's Eighth Symphony.
There are funny bits. There are tragic bits. There are a couple of pageants with allegorical figures. There's a fair chunk of mythology you won't understand without a classical education or a lot of background reading. There isn't actually a bad piece of writing in it, there's just so much jumbled together it becomes a bit of a blur.
I'm going to shut up now.
SELECTED POEMS
I'm going to ignore these, though for reference that bit in The Man in the High Castle where Wegener's singing in the shower? It's Schubert's setting of the Erl King. Wegener seems to have a taste for Schubert.
SELECTED LETTERS
I'm afraid I'm not the kind of person who goes burrowing through letters, and I'm certainly not going to rate them. They add a bit of context to the other works, and there's a stray comment about Beethoven, but otherwise there's not much to say.
There. Now I can mark this as read and move on.
June 1, 2010
My Goodness, but Werther is an annoying little twit. I read this in a half-assed way in college, and it popped up in my consciousness again when I was reading about the Romantic period in literature. Apparently, this book made a huge splash when it was published and translated into English and French, etc. Young men across the continent developed 'Werther fever', developed obsessive feelings about the book, dressed like the main character, even duplicated his actions in the book to the point of tragedy. Goethe became one of the first celebrity authors. This book really hit a nerve.
Most of the book consists of 'letters' from Werther to a friend in which he pines for a woman who is already married. If I was that friend I would have stopped opening the letters. This guy is just impossible. I don't see why anyone in the real world would have ever put up with him. And I feel like Goethe knows this and is winking at it half the time, but the other half the time he seems to be pandering to his character and anyone who might identify with him, telling them that they are right to feel the way they do. Maybe that's why this book was so successful. People like me feel like Goethe is on my side, making fun of Werther, and people like Werther feel like this book was written just for them.
Most of the book consists of 'letters' from Werther to a friend in which he pines for a woman who is already married. If I was that friend I would have stopped opening the letters. This guy is just impossible. I don't see why anyone in the real world would have ever put up with him. And I feel like Goethe knows this and is winking at it half the time, but the other half the time he seems to be pandering to his character and anyone who might identify with him, telling them that they are right to feel the way they do. Maybe that's why this book was so successful. People like me feel like Goethe is on my side, making fun of Werther, and people like Werther feel like this book was written just for them.
June 23, 2018
What a brilliant man! Reading him displays the plateau reachable by determination and brains. If only we had such men today!
The Sorrows of Young Werther
This is how unrequited love ruins a life, and, due to Goethe's hypnotic style, the reader is led to share in Wirther's decision.
Faust (Parts I and II)
What evils man encounters when his wish for genius leads not to goodness but to his condemnation!
Elective Affinites
This was a pleasure to read. Goethe sets the scene, introduces the characters and vanishes. Circumstances evolve and when the story is over, the reader has been profoundly affected. That is a brilliant writer.
Italian Journey
A wonderful travelogue filled with insightful observations. Goethe matter-of-factly shows off the breadth and depth of his knowledge. One is impressed that his comments are not filled with any conceit.
Selected Letters
An example of a gifted mind conversing with friends.
The Sorrows of Young Werther
This is how unrequited love ruins a life, and, due to Goethe's hypnotic style, the reader is led to share in Wirther's decision.
Faust (Parts I and II)
What evils man encounters when his wish for genius leads not to goodness but to his condemnation!
Elective Affinites
This was a pleasure to read. Goethe sets the scene, introduces the characters and vanishes. Circumstances evolve and when the story is over, the reader has been profoundly affected. That is a brilliant writer.
Italian Journey
A wonderful travelogue filled with insightful observations. Goethe matter-of-factly shows off the breadth and depth of his knowledge. One is impressed that his comments are not filled with any conceit.
Selected Letters
An example of a gifted mind conversing with friends.
July 7, 2025
Over the years, I’ve begun a few anthologies and serialized publications, though without consistently reading through and finishing them outright. Among these on my shelf now are Proust’s bildungsroman, Primo Levi’s complete works, and Valmiki’s Ramayana, among some others which are presently visible on my Goodreads. This copy of Goethe’s Selected Works is among those works featured above, and the first of which I intended to knock out this summer. I’ll continue cleaning up my reading backlog, though reading through some of Goethe’s most sublime works over this period of time has elicited some curious reactions out of me.
Among the interesting things in this anthology is the presence of varied literary forms. One progresses naturally from an academic introduction into two novels, a travelogue, a novella, a prosaic Faust, and then a small selection of poetry and letters. All is fairly normal here, which is to say, utterly fantastic. Goethe’s style is so evocative of that sense of boyish wonder that many of us should find relatable – something gone but not entirely forgotten; indeed, we yearn for that openness to the world, and for the ambition to take it up anew. Such is the mode among many of Goethe’s works. The love for life, science, nature, and the process of learning is so incredibly poignant in every piece featured within the collection. It is typical of the author, and contains many of the most essential writings by Goethe.
All the same, not all is perfect here. There are two glaring issues present in this Selected Works, one of which results from an intrinsic fault while the other lies in something outside of the work itself. The first is certainly most important seeing as how it is directly tied to what the product contains within: a prose translation of Faust. It is a compromise on Goethe’s life’s masterwork. This takes away any and all poetic merit from the original, further bastardizing the already bastardly, though noble and necessary, project of translating poetry from one language to another. Any reader of Faust should need no further elaboration on this point. The second point, which I should not hold against the editor but rather desire as a greedy, insatiable reader, is that this does not contain Goethe’s other literary touchstone: the establishment of the bildungsroman. Though I have not yet read Wilhelm, I so earnestly desired for it to be present here. Nonetheless, it is my own personal wishes speaking here, not anything to be held against the collection or the merits of the editor.
All in all, this is a lovely collection of writings. Just ensure to find a poetic translation of Faust: it is not worth the compromise.
Among the interesting things in this anthology is the presence of varied literary forms. One progresses naturally from an academic introduction into two novels, a travelogue, a novella, a prosaic Faust, and then a small selection of poetry and letters. All is fairly normal here, which is to say, utterly fantastic. Goethe’s style is so evocative of that sense of boyish wonder that many of us should find relatable – something gone but not entirely forgotten; indeed, we yearn for that openness to the world, and for the ambition to take it up anew. Such is the mode among many of Goethe’s works. The love for life, science, nature, and the process of learning is so incredibly poignant in every piece featured within the collection. It is typical of the author, and contains many of the most essential writings by Goethe.
All the same, not all is perfect here. There are two glaring issues present in this Selected Works, one of which results from an intrinsic fault while the other lies in something outside of the work itself. The first is certainly most important seeing as how it is directly tied to what the product contains within: a prose translation of Faust. It is a compromise on Goethe’s life’s masterwork. This takes away any and all poetic merit from the original, further bastardizing the already bastardly, though noble and necessary, project of translating poetry from one language to another. Any reader of Faust should need no further elaboration on this point. The second point, which I should not hold against the editor but rather desire as a greedy, insatiable reader, is that this does not contain Goethe’s other literary touchstone: the establishment of the bildungsroman. Though I have not yet read Wilhelm, I so earnestly desired for it to be present here. Nonetheless, it is my own personal wishes speaking here, not anything to be held against the collection or the merits of the editor.
All in all, this is a lovely collection of writings. Just ensure to find a poetic translation of Faust: it is not worth the compromise.
September 21, 2022
Goethe - Selected Works:
The Sorrows of Young Werther - ****
Elective Affinities - *****
Italian Journey - *****
Novella - ****
Faust: Part I - ****
Faust: Part II - 3.5 x * (might have been the translation?)
Total - 4.25 *
The Sorrows of Young Werther - ****
Elective Affinities - *****
Italian Journey - *****
Novella - ****
Faust: Part I - ****
Faust: Part II - 3.5 x * (might have been the translation?)
Total - 4.25 *
December 24, 2017
Didn't think much of the histrionics of Sorrows of Young Werther. Much ado about nothing. Faust was wonderful.
Read
November 2, 2019Werther and Faust are excellent.
Read
May 5, 2021An otherwise good collection marred by an almost unreadable prose translation of Faust.
Read
January 1, 2026David Constantine's translation of "Elective Affinities" is pleasant and fluid
October 6, 2013
I actually feel guilty for not liking this volume more. It was all right. When Russian writers mention Werther, I know what they mean. Faust actually had me in stitches near the start (and they call some of these other writers sexist?? Read the poodle bit.) but it turned trippy towards the middle, and meandered more than I liked. The Travels simply did not appeal to me in the least; I was bored to the point of skipping ahead, something I almost never do. One gem, in the poems at the back of my copy, was the poem of the Erl-king. An old childhood favorite, though I never knew the author. It's even prettier in German.
August 3, 2009
Just regarding Werther, the four or five pages of Ossian translations were a trial, undermining the climax with which they were intertwined, but the conclusion was very strong--vivid, hold-no-punches kind of stuff given the time period--and you can readily see how it prefigures Romanticism in general.
May 23, 2010
Exceptional! Highest recommendation go to Faust (obviously) and Italian Journey.
October 27, 2012
Phenomenal!
July 14, 2015
Filled with interesting insghts from one our true genuises. You have to see them, though as part of the story. Made a good impact on me.
December 4, 2024
A bit disappointing. I liked Werther and Elective Affinities. Faust had some great poetic and imaginative other worldly writing but was very difficult to follow in a meaningful sense.
August 23, 2016
Read The Sorrows of Young Werther and Elective Affinities.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews