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: 3.8 · 181,339 ratings · 7,201 reviews · 3,322 distinct works • Similar authors

	Faust: First Part by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Peter Salm (Translator) 3.93 avg rating — 53,428 ratings — published 1808 — 84 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 3.65 avg rating — 65,401 ratings — published 1774 — 1110 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 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Walter Kaufmann (translator) 3.97 avg rating — 26,462 ratings — published 1832 — 1299 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 3.74 avg rating — 6,189 ratings — published 1809 — 261 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) 3.74 avg rating — 4,295 ratings — published 1832 — 157 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 — 3,727 ratings — published 1786 — 239 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) 3.81 avg rating — 2,242 ratings — published 1795 — 219 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) 4.12 avg rating — 1,128 ratings — published 1954 — 33 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 — 1,225 ratings — published 1773 — 100 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 — 1,135 ratings — 17 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 — 84,204 ratings

Opere alese (2 books)
by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

George Guțu (Translator)

Mihai Isbășescu (Translator)

4.13 avg rating — 8 ratings

Wilhelm Meister (6 books)
by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

H. M. Waidson (Translator)

liked it 3.00 avg rating — 8 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

3610 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

3505 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

2151 likes

See all Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's quotes »

Polls

July 2015 Old School Classics Poll

Which book would you like to read for our July Old School Classics group read?

1868, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 449 pages

21 votes, 46.7%

1899, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, 195 pages

9 votes, 20.0%

1878, The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, 448 pages

4 votes, 8.9%

1833, Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac, 200 pages

4 votes, 8.9%

1678, The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, 324 pages

3 votes, 6.7%

1787, Faust: First Part by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 432 pages

1 vote, 2.2%

1797, The Italian by Ann Radcliffe, 423 pages

1 vote, 2.2%

1839, The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal, 532 pages

1 vote, 2.2%

1849, Shirley by Charlotte Brontë, 624 pages

1 vote, 2.2%

45 total votes

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