What should I read from Goethe?

1 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe by Jeremy Adler.

What makes Goethe great?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is the most important German literary figure of modern times and is often compared to Shakespeare and Dante. He was a poet, dramatist, director, novelist, scientist, critic, artist and statesman during what was known as the Romantic period of European arts.

What is Goethe’s best work?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is perhaps best known for The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), the first novel of the Sturm und Drang movement, and for Faust (Part I, 1808; Part II, 1832), a play about a man who sells his soul to the Devil that is sometimes considered Germany’s greatest contribution to world literature.

Why is Goethe considered a romantic author?

Goethe is often considered a “Romantic” writer. He pointedly distanced himself from the literary movement that is usually referred to as German Romanticism and that includes such diverse writers as the brothers Schlegel, Ludwig Tieck, Novalis, Clemens Brentano, Heinrich von Kleist, Friedrich Hölderlin, E.T.A.

What is the best biography of Goethe?

A masterful intellectual portrait, Goethe: Life as a Work of Art is celebrated as the seminal twenty-first-century biography of the writer considered to be the Shakespeare of German literature. As Safranski ultimately shows, Goethe’s greatest creation, even in comparison to his masterpiece Faust, was his own life.

What inspired Goethe?

Goethe was not only inspired by Italy and the antiquity. He also studied Arabic and Persian and read the Koran and the works of well-known Persian poet and mystic Hafez. Winning creative energy from the newly discovered cultures, Goethe produced his largest collection of poetry, “The West-Eastern Divan,” in 1819.

What was Goethe’s philosophy?

Goethe was a freethinker who believed that one could be inwardly Christian without following any of the Christian churches, many of whose central teachings he firmly opposed, sharply distinguishing between Christ and the tenets of Christian theology, and criticizing its history as a “hodgepodge of fallacy and violence” …

Is Goethe Romantic writer?

In the English-speaking world Goethe is often described as a Romantic, but strictly speaking the young Goethe was a pre-Romantic, and the mature Goethe was a man of the Enlightenment.

What is the contribution of JW von Goethe in literature?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What is world literature Goethe?

The term “world literature” was first used by the German writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, referring to the dissemination of literature from and to countries across the globe. As literature moves across boundaries of culture and language, it is, in a way, transformed into a unique cultural artifact.

What did Goethe do for fun during his time?

The play Faust, probably his other best-known work, was published during this period. Goethe did find some time for fun amidst his busy writing schedule and political duties. He spent two years in Italy, a country he admired for its link to classical literature, philosophy, and art.

What is behaviour according to Goethe?

Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image. Of all thieves, fools are the worst; they rob you of time and temper. There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, W. B. Rönnfeldt (1898*). “Goethe’s Criticisms, Reflections, and Maxims”

What are the requisites of contented living according to Goethe?

“Goethe’s Criticisms, Reflections, and Maxims” Talent develops in quiet, alone; character is sharpened in the torrent of the world. Nine requisites for contented living: Health enough to make work a pleasure. Wealth enough to support your needs.

What was Goethe’s religion?

Goethe came from a Lutheran family, and he was highly skeptical of both Catholicism and organized religion in general, especially Christianity. This is important to remember, because we’ll see that many of his major works take up controversial themes and question conventional morals.