GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON

born Aug. 28, 1749, Frankfurt am Main died March 22, 1832, Weimar, Saxe-Weimar German poet, novelist, playwright, and natural philospoher, the greatest figure of the German Romantic period and of German literature as a whole. One of the giants of world literature, Goethe was perhaps the last European to attempt the mastery and many-sidedness of the great Renaissance personalities: critic, journalist, painter, theatre manager, statesman, educationalist, natural philosopher. The bulk and diversity of his output is in itself phenomenal: his writings on science alone fill about 14 volumes. In the lyric vein he displayed a command of a unique variety of theme and style; in fiction he ranged from fairy tales, which have proved a quarry for psychoanalysts, through the poetic concentration of his shorter novels and Novellen (novellas) to the open, symbolic form of Wilhelm Meister; in the theatre, from historical, political, or psychological plays in prose through blank-verse drama to his Faust, one of the masterpieces of modern literature. He achieved in his 82 years a wisdom often termed Olympian, even inhuman; yet almost to the end he retained a willingness to let himself be shaken to his foundations by love or sorrow. He disciplined himself to a routine that might armour him against chaos; yet he never lost the power of producing magical short lyrics in which the mystery of living, loving, and thinking was distilled into sheer transparency. And at the last there was granted him a gift, uncanny even to himself, of tapping at will the springs of creativity in order to complete the work he had carried with him for 60 years. When, a few months before his death, he sealed his Faust, he bequeathed it with ironic resignation to the critics of posterity to discover its imperfections. Its final couplet, Das Ewig-Weibliche/Zieht uns hinan (Eternal Womanhead/Leads us on high), epitomizes his own feeling about the central polarity of human existence: woman was to him at once man's energizer and his civilizer, source of creative life and focus of the highest endeavours of both mind and spirit. There was in Goethe a natural, if not always painless, swing between poles of existence often thought to be mutually exclusive and an innate commitment to change and process. And, in the last letter he was to write, he rounded off what has sometimes been called his greatest work, his life, by setting the seal of his approval on a mode of growth that sees the art of living as the intensification of inborn talents through a judicious surrender to the natural rhythm of opposing tendencies. born Aug. 28, 1749, Frankfurt am Main died March 22, 1832, Weimar, Saxe-Weimar German poet, novelist, playwright, and natural philosopher, the greatest figure of the German Romantic period and of German literature as a whole. Goethe studied law in Leipzig and Strasbourg. His formative years coincided with the turbulent Sturm und Drang movement, and he contributed to it the drama Gtz von Berlichingen (1773) and the novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774; The Sorrows of Young Werther). From 1775 he resided in Weimar, where he fell in love with Charlotte von Stein, who inspired some of his finest lyrics and to whom he wrote some 1,500 letters. Although she was only one of the many women who inspired him, her influence was crucial in the development of Goethe's classicism. Direct contact with classical culture during his Italian sojourn of 1786 helped to shape his plays Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787) and Torquato Tasso (1790) and the poems Rmische Elegien (published 1795; Roman Elegies). Goethe's aesthetic theories were sharpened by his friendship and correspondence with the playwright Friedrich von Schiller. Although not wholly sympathetic to the Romantic movement, he approved of the Romantics' receptivity to foreign literatures and sought a rapprochement with Eastern culture in the West-stlicher Divan (1819). Throughout his life he retained a passion for scientific and philosophical studies, elaborating a theory of colours and writing on botany and biology. Remaining astonishingly creative, Goethe in his last years wrote Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (182129; Wilhelm Meister's Travels) and completed his greatest drama, Faust (Part I, 1808; Part II, 1832). Additional reading Works, drawings, diaries, correspondence, and conversations An early complete edition is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe's Werke: Vollstndige Ausgabe letzter Hand, 55 vol. in 19 (182833). The standard critical edition is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethes Werke: herausgegeben im Auftrage des Grossherzogin Sophie von Sachsen, 133 vol., including the scientific works, diaries, and letters (18871919, reprinted 1975); it was published in Weimar at first under the auspices of the grand duchess Sophie, and hence is known as the Weimarer Ausgabe or Sophienausgabe. In 1952 the Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin undertook a new critical edition, publishing separate works or small collections of works with detailed historical commentary. Of modern editions the most noteworthy are: Goethes smtliche Werke: Jubilums-Ausgabe, ed. by Eduard von der Hellen, 40 vol. (190207), supplemented by the Register (1912), an index volume, with introductions and notes; the Gedenkausgabe der Werke, Briefe und Gesprche, 28. August 1949, ed. by Ernst R. Beutler, 24 vol., including selections from the scientific works, correspondence, and conversations, with useful indexes (194854), and a supplementary volume, Ergnzungsband I: Briefe aus dem Elternhaus (1960); and Werke: Hamburger Ausgabe, ed. by Erich Trunz, 14 vol. (196164), issued with varying edition statements. In 1974 the 10th rev. ed. was begun. There are innumerable collections of selected works, such as Goethes amtliche Schriften, ed. by Willy Flach, 3 vol. (1950), including Goethe's works of 17761819, with commentaries; a later comprehensive selection is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Werke, ed. by Emil Steiger, 4 vol. (1982). Goethe's drawings and sketches were published in the Corpus der Goethezeichnungen, ed. by Gerhard Femmel, 6 vol. (195870); see also Ludwig Munz, Goethes Zeichnungen und Radierungen (1949); Goethes Gesprche, ed. by Flodoard W. Von Biedermann, 1st ed., 10 vol. (188996), and 2nd ed., 5 vol. (190911); and Johann P. Eckermann, Gesprche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens, 3 vol. (183648, many times reprinted in 1 vol.). A new edition of conversations, based on Biedermann's collection, was begun in 1965 by Wolfgang Herwid (ed.), Goethes Gesprche: eine Sammlung zeitgenssischer Berichte aus seinem Umgang. The only complete collection of Goethe's letters is in the Weimarer Ausgabe; see also the letters to Goethe, ed. by Rudolf K. Goldschmidt-Jentner, Eine Welt schreibtan Goethe (1937).His correspondence with particular individuals, German and foreign, is conveniently listed in the Hamburger Ausgabe, vol. 14; see also Douglas F.S. Scott (ed.), Some English Correspondents of Goethe (1949), which includes correspondence with Mathew (Monk) Lewis, T. Holcroft, Sir Walter Scott, P.P. Gillies, Sir John Bowring, Lord Leveson-Gower, and Sarah Austin. Selections in English include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe: Conversations and Encounters, ed. and trans. by David Luke and Robert Pick (1966), based on the last three volumes of the centenary edition Gedenkausgabe; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe's World View, Presented in His Reflections and Maxims (1963), a bilingual text, ed. and with an introduction by Frederick Ungar; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Autobiography of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 2 vol. (1974), trans. by John Oxenford; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe's Literary Essays (1964), a selection arranged by J.E. Spingarn; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Roman Elegies and Venetian Epigrams (1974), a bilingual text, trans. and with an introduction and commentaries by Levi R. Lind; and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Eternal Feminine: Selected Poems (1980), a bilingual text, ed. by Frederick Ungar. Bibliography Only the researcher will consult the vast compilation in Karl Goedeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen, 5 parts (191013 and later editions); superseded by Hans Pyritz, Goethe-Bibliographie, new ed., 2 vol. (196568). Volume 14 of the Hamburger Ausgabe is adequate for most purposes. The Goethe-Handbuch, ed. by Alfred Zastrau (publication begun in 1955), provides alphabetical references to all topics relating to Goethe. Heinz Kindermann, Das Goethebild des XX. Jahrhunderts, 2nd rev. ed. (1966), is in effect a lively catalogue raisonn of European and American critical literature during the 20th century. Later bibliographies have appeared in numerous periodicals and yearbooks issued by Goethe societies throughout the world, as well as in the annual MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures. Goethe societies Wiener Goethe-Verein, 1886; Goethe Gesellschaft, Weimar, 1885; English Goethe Society, 1886; Australian Goethe Society, 1949; Goethe Society of Maryland and the District of Columbia, 1932; Japanese Goethe Gesellschaft, 1932. All issue publications. Biography and criticism The best introduction in English is George H. Lewes, The Life of Goethe, new ed. (1965). Others available in English are by Albert Bielschowsky, The Life of Goethe, 3 vol. (190508, reprinted 1970; originally published in German, 2 vol., 18961904); Benedetto Croce, Goethe (1923, reprinted 1973; trans. from the Italian); and George M. Brandes, Wolfgang Goethe (1924; originally published in Danish, 1915). See also Emil Ludwig, Goethe: The History of a Man, 17491832 (1928, reprinted 1936; originally published in German, 3 vol., 1920); Henry W. Nevinson, Goethe: Man and Poet (1931, reprinted 1971); John G. Robertson, The Life and Work of Goethe, 17491832, enlarged ed. (1932, reprinted 1973); Ludwig Lewisohn (ed.), Goethe: The Story of a Man: Being the Life of Johann Wolfgang Goethe as Told in His Own Words and the Words of His Contemporaries, 2 vol. (1949); Albert Schweitzer, Goethe: Five Studies (1961; trans. from the German); and Karl Vitor, Goethe, The Poet (1949, reprinted 1970), and Goethe, the Thinker (1950), both translations of parts of his Goethe: Dichtung, Wissenschaft, Weltbild (1949). Criticism in English includes Barker Fairley, Goethe, as Revealed in His Poetry (1932, reprinted 1973), and A Study of Goethe (1947, reprinted 1977); Thomas Mann, Three Essays (1929, reprinted 1932; originally published in German, new ed., 1932); William Rose (ed.), Essays on Goethe (1949); Alexander R. Hohlfeld, Fifty Years with Goethe, 19011951: Collected Studies (1953): Elizabeth M. Wilkinson and Leonard A. Willoughby, Goethe: Poet and Thinker (1962); and Ronald Peacock, Goethe's Major Plays (1959, reprinted 1966). Other studies include Ronald D. Gray, Goethe: A Critical Introduction (1967); Victor Lange (ed.), Goethe (1968), a collection of essays; Harry G. Haile, Artist in Chrysalis (1973), a study of Goethe's Italian period (178688); Ilse Graham, Goethe and Lessing: The Wellsprings of Creation (1973); Liselotte Dieckmann, Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1974), a survey of Goethe's autobiographical works and his studies in the natural sciences; Ernst M. Oppenheimer, Goethe's Poetry for Occasions (1974); Eric A. Blackall, Goethe and the Novel (1976); Erich Heller, The Poet's Self and the Poem (1976); Meredith Lee, Studies in Goethe's Lyric Cycles (1978); Georg Lukcs, Goethe and His Age (1968, reprinted 1978; originally published in German, 1947); and Jrn Gres, Goethes Leben in Bilddokumenten (1981), an illustrated biography. On Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe's Urfaust and Faust, ed. by Leonard A. Willoughby (1943); Faust, ed. by Roe-Merril S. Heffner, Helmut Rehder, and William F. Twaddell, 2 vol. (1975); and Hermann G. Fiedler, Textual Studies of Goethe's Faust (1946, reprinted 1977). Further interpretations of Faust in English are by F. Melian Stawell and G. Lowes Dickinson, Goethe & Faust (1928, reprinted 1972); Ronald D. Miller, The Meaning of Goethe's Faust (1939); Dennis J. Enright, Commentary on Goethe's Faust (1949, reprinted 1977); Barker Fairley, Goethe's Faust: Six Essays (1953, reprinted 1965); Alexander Gillies, Goethe's Faust (1957); and Stuart P. Atkins, Goethe's Faust: A Literary Analysis (1958, reprinted 1964). See also Eliza M. Butler, The Fortunes of Faust (1952, reprinted 1979); and Adolf I. Frantz, Half a Hundred Thralls to Faust: A Study Based on the British and the American Translators of Goethe's Faust, 18231949 (1949). Other works include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, trans. by Barker Fairley (1970), a prose translation; Eudo C. Mason, Goethe's Faust: Its Genesis and Purport (1967); Peter Salm, The Poem as Plant: A Biological View of Goethe's Faust (1971); Pietro Citati, Goethe (1974; originally published in Italian, 1970), a companion to Faust and Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre; Harry G. Haile, Invitation to Goethe's Faust (1978); Kurt Weinberg, The Figure of Faust in Valry and Goethe (1976); Harold Jantz, The Mothers in Faust: The Myth of Time and Creativity (1969), and The Form of Faust: The Work of Art and Its Intrinsic Structures (1978); John Gearey, Goethe's Faust: The Making of Part I (1981); Allan P. Cottrell, Goethe's Faust (1976), and Goethe's View of Evil and the Search for a New Image of Man in Our Time (1982). Science, philosophy, and aesthetics Sir Charles Sherrington, Goethe on Nature and on Science, 2nd ed. (1949), is an unsympathetic view; as a corrective to Sherrington, see Agnes Arber, Goethe's Botany, including a trans. of Die Metamorphose der Pflanzen (1946), and of The Natural Philosophy of Plant Form (1950, reprinted 1970). See also Ren Micha, Les Travaux scientifiques de Goethe (1943); Ronald D. Gray, Goethe, the Alchemist (1952); Erich Heller, The Disinherited Mind, 4th ed. (1975); Otto Harnack, Goethe in der Epoche seiner Vollendung, 18051832, 3rd ed. (1905); Georg Simmel, Goethe (1913, reprinted 1923); Lancelot L. Whyte, The Next Development in Man (1944, reprinted 1962); Carl J. Obenauer, Goethe in seinem Verhltnis zur Religion (1921); Hans M. Wolff, Goethes Weg zur Humanitt (1951); Fritz Joachim von Rintelen, Der Rang des Geistes: Goethes Weltverstndnis (1955); Paul Stcklein, Wege zum spten Goethe: Dichtung, Gedanke, Zeichnung, 2nd ed. (1960, reprinted 1977); Ijs Jolles, Goethes Kunstanschauung (1957). Selections in English include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wisdom and Experience, ed. and trans. by Hermann J. Weigand (1949); Gnther Mller (ed.), Maximen und Reflexionen (1947); Thomas Mann (ed.), The Permanent Goethe (1948); and Wolfgang Leppmann, The German Image of Goethe (1961). Goethe's aesthetics is discussed in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe's Theory of Colours, trans. and with notes by Charles Lock Eastlake (1975); Derek Van Abb, Goethe: New Perspectives on a Writer and His Time (1972); Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe on Art, ed. and trans. by John Gage (1980); Gabriele Girschner, Goethes Tasso: Klassizismus als sthetische Regression (1981); William D. Robson-Scott, The Younger Goethe and the Visual Arts (1981); Terence J. Reed, The Classical Centre: Goethe and Weimar, 17751832 (1980); and Walter Kaufmann, Goethe, Kant, and Hegel (1980). Weltliteratur Jean M. Carr, Goethe en Angleterre: tude de littrature compare (1920); William Rose, From Goethe to Byron: The Development of Weltschmerz in German Literature (1924); John G. Robertson (ed.), Goethe and Byron (1925, reprinted 1978); Stuart P. Atkins, The Testament of Werther in Poetry and Drama (1949); Eliza M. Butler, Byron and Goethe: Analysis of a Passion (1956); Frederick Norman, Henry Crabb Robinson and Goethe, 2 vol. (193032); James B. Orrick, Matthew Arnold and Goethe (1928, reprinted 1977); Fritz Strich, Goethe and World Literature (1949, reprinted 1972; originally published in German, 1946, reprinted 1957); Humphry Trevelyan, Goethe and the Greeks (1941, reprinted 1981; a corrective to Eliza M. Butler, The Tyranny of Greece over Germany: A Study of the Influence Exercised by Greek Art and Poetry over the Great German Writers of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Centuries, 1935, reprinted 1958); James Boyd, Goethe's Knowledge of English Literature (1932, reprinted 1973); Bertram Barnes, Goethe's Knowledge of French Literature (1937); Horst Oppel, Das Shakespeare-Bild Goethes (1949); Arnold Federmann, Der junge Goethe und England (1949); Andr Von Gronicka, The Russian Image of Goethe: Goethe in Russian Literature of the First Half of the Nineteenth Century (1968); and David B. Richards, Goethe's Search for the Muse: Translation and Creativity (1979). Cultural background Hermann A. Korff, Geist der Goethezeit, 5 vol. (192357, reprinted 1974); Ernst R. Beutler, Essays um Goethe, 7th ed., 2 vol. (1980); Goethe und siene Welt, with 580 illustrations, ed. by Ernst R. Beutler, Hans Wahl, and Anton Kippenberg (1932); Arnold Bergstrsser, Goethe's Image of Man and Society (1949, reprinted 1962); Walter H. Bruford, Theatre, Drama, and Audience in Goethe's Germany (1950, reprinted 1974), and Culture and Society in Classical Weimar, 17751806 (1962); John Prudhoe, The Theater of Goethe and Schiller (1973); and Marvin Carlson, Goethe and the Weimar Theatre (1978). Elizabeth M. Wilkinson The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Major Works: Verse Das Buch Annette (1767); Neue Lieder, so-called Leipziger Liederbuch (1770); Rmische Elegien (1795); Venezianische Epigramme (1790); Xenien, written with Schiller (1796); Balladenjahr (1797); Epilog zu Schillers Glocke (1805); West-stlicher Divan (1819); Trilogie der Leidenschaft (182327). Dramatic works Die Laune des Verliebten (1767, printed 1806); Die Mitschuldigen (1768, printed 1787); Gtz von Berlichingen (1773); Gtter, Helden und Wieland (1774); Clavigo (1774); Erwin und Elmire (1775), operetta; Stella (1776); Claudine von Villa Bella (1776), operetta; Die Geschwister (1776); Der Triumph der Empfindsamkeit (177778); Iphigenie auf Tauris (1779; final version, 1787); Egmont (1788); Torquato Tasso (1790); Faust, Ein Fragment (1790); Der Gross-Cophta (1792); Der Brgergeneral (1793); Die Natrliche Tochter (1804); Faust I (1808); Pandoras Wiederkunft (1808); Des Epimenides Erwachen (1815); Faust II (1832). Novels and epics Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774); Reineke Fuchs (1794), satire; Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten (1795); Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (179596); Hermann und Dorothea (1797); Achilleis (1808), epic fragment; Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1809); Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (182129); Novelle (1826). Autobiography Aus meinem Leben, Dichtung und Wahrheit (181122); Italienische Reise (181617); Campagne in Frankreich, 1792 (1822); Die Belagerung von Mainz 1793 (1822). Science Versuch die Metamorphose der Pflanzen zu erklren (1790); Beitrge zur Optik (179192); Zur Farbenlehre (1810); Zur Naturwissenschaft berhaupt, besonders zur Morphologie (181723), journal. Criticism Von deutscher Baukunst (1773); Die Propylen (17981800), journal ed. by Goethe; Winkelmann und sein Jahrhundert (1805); ber Kunst und Altertum, 6 vol. (181632), periodical. Translations There is still no uniform edition in English though the chief works have been frequently translated and many of them are to be found in Bohn's Standard Library, 14 vol. (184690). For details see Lina and Eugen Oswald, and Alexander Dickson, Goethe in England (and America) in Publications of the English Goethe Society, 2 vol. (1909, 1951). Translations include: Wilhelm Meister's Theatrical Mission by G.A. Page (1913); Wilhelm Meister by Thomas Carlyle (1824; Everyman ed., 1912, reissued 1965). Faust I and II by A.G. Latham (190206; Everyman ed., 1908); other translations of Faust by Bayard Taylor (187071; World's Classics, 1932); Philip Wayne (Penguin ed., 1949); Louis MacNeice (1951); Bertram Jessup (1958); John Shawcross (1959); Walter Kaufmann (1961); Alice Raphael (1963); and C.E. Passage (1965). Egmont by Michael Hamburger in The Classic Theatre, vol. 2, ed. by E. Bentley (1959); by Willard R. Trask (1960); Gtz von Berlichingen, by C.E. Passage (1965); Iphigenia in Tauris, by C.E. Passage (1963); Italian Journey, 17861788, by W.H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer (1962); Torquato Tasso, by C.E. Passage (1966); Kindred by Choice (Die Wahlverwandtschaften) by H.M. Waidson (1961); by Elizabeth Mayer and Louise Bogan (1963); Werther by William Rose (1929); Werther by B.Q. Morgan (1957); Die Leiden des jungen Werther, Dual-Language book, ed. by H. Steinhauer (1962); Werther: The New Melusina. Novelle by Victor Lange (1949); Novelle by C.P. Middleton (1959); The West-Eastern Divan by Edward Dowden (1914). The Briefwechsel with Schiller and a collection of early and miscellaneous letters are in Bohn (see above); that with Carlyle, ed. by C.E. Norton (1887). Letters from Goethe, selected and trans. by M. von Herzfeld and C.M. Sym (1957). Conversations with Eckermann by John Oxenford, 2 vol. (1850; vol. 6 of Bohn); by R.O. Moon (1951).