The Goethe Treasury: Selected Prose and Poetry

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Mann (Editor)

Best known today as the author of Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) first exploded into the public consciousness with The Sorrows of Young Werther when he was twenty-four . He was already a respected poet by then; and in addition to these forms, he wrote travelogues, autobiographical sketches, essays, letters, and proverbs in rhyme and prose. This collection offers outstanding examples of each genre from the great German writer's prolific career.
The poems range in theme from youthful romantic obsessions to mature reflections on life. "The Erl-King" and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" appear among the ballads, and his fiction in this collection includes the entire text of Werther and passages from Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and other works. Other writings feature observations on travel in Italy, criticism of the works of Shakespeare and Byron, and letters to friends and family. These sensitive translations by Sir Walter Scott, Stephen Spender, Thomas Carlyle, and others were specially selected by the Nobel laureate and giant of modern German literature, Thomas Mann, who provides an informative introduction.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 19, 2006

About the author

A 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.

Reviews

[Coeruleum · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually like Goethe, I don't usually like Thomas Mann, and consistent with the facts, many of these translations are not good at all. Is Thomas Mann just trying to make himself seem better than Goethe? Is he so dazzled by the idea of compiling every English Goethe translation that vaguely follows form and slapping his name on it he can't tell a great or even good translation from a mediocre one? Does he expect the reader to be dazzled by impenetrable translations that exclude much if not all of the substance and don't sound that beautiful but rather obtuse, when the real poems are often dazzling and impenetrable enough without what seems like actual attempts to defraud the reader, and, additionally, are usually uncannily beautiful? While it's three stars because it's Goethe and not completely terrible and somewhat interesting, I would also feel extremely icky giving this to anyone who wasn't already somewhat familiar with both Goethe and Thomas Mann. This book is like those snake firecrackers you set on the ground and light: it's mildly amusing, dangerous for children, and about as reminiscent of feces as it is a mystical fire snake.

[Arthur Sperry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this collection of the works of Goethe. He has many insights on human nature and the way humans behave.

[William Shep · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine selection of works from Germany's greatest writer.

[Leilani & Rich Darling-Linfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems too obvious to state that Goethe, like Emerson, was ahead of his time. Yet if we hurry up and slow down, we can catch up with them and not stomp nature and our potential underfoot!