The Essential Goethe

Born in 1749, Goethe was a lawyer, minister of state, public intellectual, scientist, and even the producer of Mozart’s Così fan tutte for the Weimar court. As this massive collection of previously published translations demonstrates, his influence on European ideas cannot be overestimated. Goethe, who wrote poetry, plays, novels, and essays, was a titanic literary figure in his day , and he has influenced authors as diverse as Mary Shelley and Thomas Mann. This anthology collects dramas such as “Egmont,” “Faust,” and “Iphigenia in Tauris,” as well as “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship,” Goethe’s long bildungsroman. “Italian Journey,” his travel memoir, and the selected essays reflect Goethe’s shift from romanticism to classicism, under the influence of the great scholar and historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Goethe’s reflections on botany, color, and weather reveal a broad, inquiring, and multivalent mind. The volume’s greatest puzzle is the omission of The Sorrows of Young Werther, which brought him worldwide fame and recognition when it was published in 1774. This collection will have great appeal for serious readers and scholars, and Bell and Princeton should be commended for the quality of the enterprise. The meticulously prepared edition brims with Goethe’s radiant insights and reflects his stunning virtuosity, confirming again his paramount position in European letters. (Dec.)