Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Born

in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

August 28, 1749

Died

March 22, 1832

Genre

Fiction, Poetry, Science

Influences

Friedrich Schiller, Emanuel Swedenborg, Immanuel Kant, Gotthold Ephrai ...more

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer. George Eliot called him "Germany's greatest man of letters... and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, humanism, and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust. Goethe's other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Goethe was one of the key figures of German literature and the movement of Weimar Classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; this movement coincides with Enlightenment, Sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Dra ...more

Combine Editions
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s books

Average rating: 3.79 · 232,334 ratings · 9,849 reviews · 2,598 distinct works • Similar authors

	Faust, First Part by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Peter Salm (Translator) 3.93 avg rating — 59,960 ratings — published 1808 — 500 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sorrows of Young Werther 3.68 avg rating — 90,865 ratings — published 1774 — 1437 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Faust 3.96 avg rating — 33,688 ratings — published 1832 — 1960 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Elective Affinities 3.73 avg rating — 8,241 ratings — published 1809 — 336 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Faust, Part Two by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, David Luke (Translator) 3.72 avg rating — 5,085 ratings — published 1832 — 210 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Iphigenie auf Tauris 3.20 avg rating — 4,830 ratings — published 1786 — 294 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Eric A. Blackall (Editor) 3.80 avg rating — 2,702 ratings — published 1795 — 234 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Selected Poetry by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, David Luke (Translator) 4.13 avg rating — 1,234 ratings — published 1954 — 37 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Götz von Berlichingen 3.35 avg rating — 1,450 ratings — published 1773 — 127 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Catherine Hutter (Translator), Marcelle Clements (Introduction) 3.81 avg rating — 1,273 ratings — published 1774 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe…

Series by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Goethe's Faust (2 books)
by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

David Luke (Translator)

3.93 avg rating — 98,732 ratings

Goethe's Werke 1827-30 (40 books)
by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

Jean Livescu (Introd.),

Valeria Sadoveanu (trad.)

4.24 avg rating — 25 ratings

Opere alese (2 books)
by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

George Guțu (Translator),

Mihai Isbășescu (Translator)

4.50 avg rating — 12 ratings

Wilhelm Meister (6 books)
by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

H.M. Waidson (Translator)

3.09 avg rating — 11 ratings

Quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

tags: art, good-life, music, poetry, self-improvement

3881 likes

“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

tags: inspiration

3671 likes

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

tags: art, beauty, music, wonder

2247 likes

See all Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's quotes »

Polls

October 2017 Old School Classic Poll

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, 1894, 277 pages

68 votes, 21.3%

Walden by Henry David Thoreau, 1854, 352 pages

43 votes, 13.5%

Hamlet by William Shakespeare, 1600, 289 pages

37 votes, 11.6%

Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, 1782, 448 pages

34 votes, 10.7%

Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, 1883, 327 pages

33 votes, 10.3%

Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, 1862, 244 pages

24 votes, 7.5%

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, 1861, 176 pages

24 votes, 7.5%

Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore, 1869, 750 pages

24 votes, 7.5%

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774, 176 pages

19 votes, 6.0%

Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, 1864, 477 pages

13 votes, 4.1%

319 total votes

13 comments

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