What do you think?
Rate this book
Very Short Introductions #462
Goethe: A Very Short Introduction
In 1878 the Victorian critic Matthew Arnold wrote: 'Goethe is the greatest poet of modern times... because having a very considerable gift for poetry, he was at the same time, in the width, depth, and richness of his criticism of life, by far our greatest modern man.'
In this Very Short Introduction Ritchie Robertson covers the life and work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832): scientist, administrator, artist, art critic and supreme literary writer in a vast variety of genres. Looking at Goethe's poetry, novels and drama pieces, as well as his travel writing, autobiography, and essays on art and aesthetics, Robertson analyses some of the key themes in his works: love, nature, religion and tragedy. Dispelling the misconception of Goethe as a sedate Victorian sage, Robertson shows how much of his art was rooted in turbulent personal conflicts, and draws on recent research to present a complete portrait of the scientific work and political activity which accompanied Goethe's writings.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
In this Very Short Introduction Ritchie Robertson covers the life and work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832): scientist, administrator, artist, art critic and supreme literary writer in a vast variety of genres. Looking at Goethe's poetry, novels and drama pieces, as well as his travel writing, autobiography, and essays on art and aesthetics, Robertson analyses some of the key themes in his works: love, nature, religion and tragedy. Dispelling the misconception of Goethe as a sedate Victorian sage, Robertson shows how much of his art was rooted in turbulent personal conflicts, and draws on recent research to present a complete portrait of the scientific work and political activity which accompanied Goethe's writings.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
142 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2016
22 people are currently reading
412 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 13, 2025
Goethe In The Very Short Introductions Series
The Very Short Introductions Series of Oxford University Press aims to provide "stimulating ways into new subjects". Ritchie Robertson's 2016 book for the series on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1789 -- 1832) takes a life of extraordinary complexity and achievement and crystallizes it less than 150 dense pages. Robertson, Taylor Professor of German at Oxford, has written prolifically on German literature and on the Enlightenment. He is an ideal choice for writing this short introduction on Goethe for the benefit both of new readers and for those readers wishing a brief summary of scholarly thinking about the Sage of Weimar. In his Preface, Robertson states that he has endeavored to write a "personal book, in which, without forcing my presence on the reader, I have tried to express my own views on why Goethe matters and why his main works remain endlessly rewarding." He succeeds well in this aim.
This book concentrates on Goethe's writings and accomplishments more than on the details of his life. However, there is considerable treatment of his many erotically charged relationships with women and with his frequent tendency to fall in love with unattainable women. Robertson ties in well the romantic experiences of Goethe's life with many of his writings.
The book is in six chapters organized by subjects, including love, nature, classical art and world literature, politics, tragedy, and religion. Robertson tries to give an account of Goethe's views on these broad matters and to relate them to his writings and work. The figures that stand out for me in this book include Plato, Enlightenment thinkers, and, Spinoza. Robertson also places Goethe within the context of the historical events of his time in his discussions of the French Revolution, Napoleon, the Holy Roman Empire, and, always, the Enlightenment.
The book begins with a study of Goethe's famous early novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" which it uses as a point of entry to his work as a whole to explore the question of classicism and romanticism in Goethe. Throughout the book, Robertson discusses Goethe as a lyric poet with many brief examples from his large output. The book will impress the reader with the breadth of Goethe's output as Robertson discusses "Faust" "The Sorrow of William Meister", "William Meister's Apprenticeship" "Egmont", "Elective Affinities" and more. It is an embarrassment of riches to treat in a short book. The work is informative and succinct and left me wanting to know more.
The book gives attention to Goethe's interest and work in the natural sciences and to his political and governmental activities in Weimar. Robertson points out the limitations of Goethe's approach to science, together with his accomplishments. He also stresses Goethe's political conservatism, which was notable even in the context of the Germany of his day. In many ways, Goethe left his politics behind in the complexity and nuances of his writing.
I did not come to Goethe for the first time in reading this book. Robertson taught me a great deal and showed me how much I didn't know. One of the ways I have known Goethe is through listening to German lieder, including songs by Schubert, Schumann, Hugo Wolf, and others who set Goethe's poems. Goethe had little use for Schubert and brushed his work aside on two occasions. When I finished this book, I turned to listen to a CD of some of Schubert's settings of Goethe, including the famous "Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel" and his many "Mignon" songs from "William Meister". Thus I supplemented what I had learned from Robertson by returning to learn of the genius of Goethe through the different genius of Schubert.
Robertson's book offers an excellent introduction Goethe's work and thought. The book includes a list of recommended translations, a brief bibliography of recommended studies of Goethe in English, and a chronology of Goethe's life and works.
Robin Friedman
The Very Short Introductions Series of Oxford University Press aims to provide "stimulating ways into new subjects". Ritchie Robertson's 2016 book for the series on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1789 -- 1832) takes a life of extraordinary complexity and achievement and crystallizes it less than 150 dense pages. Robertson, Taylor Professor of German at Oxford, has written prolifically on German literature and on the Enlightenment. He is an ideal choice for writing this short introduction on Goethe for the benefit both of new readers and for those readers wishing a brief summary of scholarly thinking about the Sage of Weimar. In his Preface, Robertson states that he has endeavored to write a "personal book, in which, without forcing my presence on the reader, I have tried to express my own views on why Goethe matters and why his main works remain endlessly rewarding." He succeeds well in this aim.
This book concentrates on Goethe's writings and accomplishments more than on the details of his life. However, there is considerable treatment of his many erotically charged relationships with women and with his frequent tendency to fall in love with unattainable women. Robertson ties in well the romantic experiences of Goethe's life with many of his writings.
The book is in six chapters organized by subjects, including love, nature, classical art and world literature, politics, tragedy, and religion. Robertson tries to give an account of Goethe's views on these broad matters and to relate them to his writings and work. The figures that stand out for me in this book include Plato, Enlightenment thinkers, and, Spinoza. Robertson also places Goethe within the context of the historical events of his time in his discussions of the French Revolution, Napoleon, the Holy Roman Empire, and, always, the Enlightenment.
The book begins with a study of Goethe's famous early novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" which it uses as a point of entry to his work as a whole to explore the question of classicism and romanticism in Goethe. Throughout the book, Robertson discusses Goethe as a lyric poet with many brief examples from his large output. The book will impress the reader with the breadth of Goethe's output as Robertson discusses "Faust" "The Sorrow of William Meister", "William Meister's Apprenticeship" "Egmont", "Elective Affinities" and more. It is an embarrassment of riches to treat in a short book. The work is informative and succinct and left me wanting to know more.
The book gives attention to Goethe's interest and work in the natural sciences and to his political and governmental activities in Weimar. Robertson points out the limitations of Goethe's approach to science, together with his accomplishments. He also stresses Goethe's political conservatism, which was notable even in the context of the Germany of his day. In many ways, Goethe left his politics behind in the complexity and nuances of his writing.
I did not come to Goethe for the first time in reading this book. Robertson taught me a great deal and showed me how much I didn't know. One of the ways I have known Goethe is through listening to German lieder, including songs by Schubert, Schumann, Hugo Wolf, and others who set Goethe's poems. Goethe had little use for Schubert and brushed his work aside on two occasions. When I finished this book, I turned to listen to a CD of some of Schubert's settings of Goethe, including the famous "Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel" and his many "Mignon" songs from "William Meister". Thus I supplemented what I had learned from Robertson by returning to learn of the genius of Goethe through the different genius of Schubert.
Robertson's book offers an excellent introduction Goethe's work and thought. The book includes a list of recommended translations, a brief bibliography of recommended studies of Goethe in English, and a chronology of Goethe's life and works.
Robin Friedman
May 5, 2020
I've always been a sucker for centrists. Part of my crush on Anglicanism stems from its refusal to pick a side between Catholicism and Protestantism. I have friends who disagree, of course. I haven't officially been confirmed though. I'm still working through how I could make peace with a state church whose history has been plagued with colonial activities... so I'm just a Protestant wanna-be who dreams of a low-church liturgical revival.
Goethe first piqued my interest when I heard a lecture by Elizabeth Vandiver discussing how Goethe oscillated between Romanticism and Neoclassicism. Goethe was proto-romanticist who talked about feelings and subjectivity before it was cool, but he also penned several scientific texts. He was a centrist in that regard.
So I found Robertson's treatment of Goethe super helpful for contextualizing Goethe himself. The introduction discusses the themes surrounding Goethe's works: love, nature, classical art and world lit, politics, tragedy, and religion. It also included biographical information that illustrated how Goethe discovered and combined all his passions.
I was also surprised to learn how important romantic love was to Goethe. He didn't have a great love life though so probably why he turned them into tragedies.
Goethe first piqued my interest when I heard a lecture by Elizabeth Vandiver discussing how Goethe oscillated between Romanticism and Neoclassicism. Goethe was proto-romanticist who talked about feelings and subjectivity before it was cool, but he also penned several scientific texts. He was a centrist in that regard.
So I found Robertson's treatment of Goethe super helpful for contextualizing Goethe himself. The introduction discusses the themes surrounding Goethe's works: love, nature, classical art and world lit, politics, tragedy, and religion. It also included biographical information that illustrated how Goethe discovered and combined all his passions.
I was also surprised to learn how important romantic love was to Goethe. He didn't have a great love life though so probably why he turned them into tragedies.
December 28, 2019
On the old TV series Barney Miller, intellectual Detective Sergeant Arthur Dietrich always attended the annual Goethe Festival in New York City, and until now, that was the extent of my knowledge of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, except that he is considered one of the greatest poets, in any language, of all time, and that he wrote the plays Faust Part 1 and Faust Part 2. So by reading Ritchie Robertson's Very Short Introduction, I've plugged one of the gaps in my knowledge of world culture. Robertson's slim volume isn't a biography as much as a discussion of Goethe's works and his philosophy, theories, and beliefs on Love, Nature, Classical art and world literature, Politics, Tragedy, and Religion, which are the titles and subjects of the book's six chapters. As someone so completely uninformed about such a giant of world literature, I would have preferred more biographical detail, but that's a small criticism, and one that reflects my ignorance rather than a flaw of Robertson's writing.
May 3, 2017
Before reading GOETHE: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION, I had some knowledge of Goethe. I had read many of his works in English and a few in German, and I had read the two volumes of Nicholas Boyle’s fascinating biography.
I read GOETHE in small part because I know the author, with whom I shared a flat for a year in the mid-70s. I have read a few of the author’s other books, and I found all of them to be interesting, informative and scholarly.
On this occasion, I wanted to know what a major German scholar considered to be the main points of Goethe’s life and works. The book is organized around six major themes—love, nature, classical art and world literature, politics, tragedy and religion—which provide ample scope for a systematic discussion of Goethe’s life, works and ideas.
I recommend this book highly to anyone who is just starting to find out about Goethe, as well as to anyone who has already made some progress in Goethe studies.
I read GOETHE in small part because I know the author, with whom I shared a flat for a year in the mid-70s. I have read a few of the author’s other books, and I found all of them to be interesting, informative and scholarly.
On this occasion, I wanted to know what a major German scholar considered to be the main points of Goethe’s life and works. The book is organized around six major themes—love, nature, classical art and world literature, politics, tragedy and religion—which provide ample scope for a systematic discussion of Goethe’s life, works and ideas.
I recommend this book highly to anyone who is just starting to find out about Goethe, as well as to anyone who has already made some progress in Goethe studies.
March 15, 2017
An excellent and thorough take on Goethe; Robertson manages to pack a wealth of information in these 120 or so pages.
October 24, 2024
3,5 stars; fine introduction to the man and the cultural phenomenon that is Goethe; always put off digging into his works, with the notable exception of 'his' Faust after I read Christopher Marlowe's incarnation of the parable of the price we pay for knowledge; will read/listen to 'The sorrows of young Werther' next and perhaps delve deeper into some biographies.
December 14, 2017
This Very Short Introduction does exactly what a VSI should do. It introduces the reader to its subject and explains why it is significant, and it’s pitched at a non-academic audience in accessible language and with a coherent organisation of the content. Ritchie Robertson’s Goethe, a Very Short Introduction made me want to drop what I’m currently reading and find out more about this great German writer.
Goethe (Wikipedia Commons)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a celebrity novelist at the age of 25! His debut novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther (see my review) was an early example of the Sturm und Drang literary movement, but today its passionate evocation of hopeless young love would place it on the YA shelves (and the film studios would option it and he’d have a mega advance to set him up for life). But as Robertson explains in the preface, there is a lot more to Goethe than Werther.
Writing on the great issues of his time…
Goethe looks like a respectable German intellectual in the portrait on my blog but he was actually quite the non-conformist in some ways. Robertson says that it’s wrong to think of him as a distant and, nowadays unexciting Victorian sage, and also as a serene Olympian figure above ordinary human passions. [*chuckle* Robertson, being an Oxford scholar, does not mean athletic; he means Olympian as in the Greek gods]. Goethe had to work hard at controlling his turbulent emotional experience and #scandal! he shacked up with his lady friend for many years instead of marrying her. But politically he was deeply conservative, and indeed his refusal, when he was in a position of power, to reform the death penalty for infanticide, led directly to the execution of a young woman. His literature, taken as a whole, reveals these contradictions, his irritation with petty restrictions, his questing nature and his reflections on the rapidly changing world he lived in. Robertson says that he was:
Lionised in Germany now, Goethe was not so popular in his own day.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/12/14/g...
Goethe (Wikipedia Commons)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a celebrity novelist at the age of 25! His debut novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther (see my review) was an early example of the Sturm und Drang literary movement, but today its passionate evocation of hopeless young love would place it on the YA shelves (and the film studios would option it and he’d have a mega advance to set him up for life). But as Robertson explains in the preface, there is a lot more to Goethe than Werther.
Writing on the great issues of his time…
… Goethe produced masterpieces in almost every genre: poems on the largest and smallest scale, plays and novels in varied kinds, autobiography, aphorisms, essays, literary and art criticism. (p.xiii)…
Goethe looks like a respectable German intellectual in the portrait on my blog but he was actually quite the non-conformist in some ways. Robertson says that it’s wrong to think of him as a distant and, nowadays unexciting Victorian sage, and also as a serene Olympian figure above ordinary human passions. [*chuckle* Robertson, being an Oxford scholar, does not mean athletic; he means Olympian as in the Greek gods]. Goethe had to work hard at controlling his turbulent emotional experience and #scandal! he shacked up with his lady friend for many years instead of marrying her. But politically he was deeply conservative, and indeed his refusal, when he was in a position of power, to reform the death penalty for infanticide, led directly to the execution of a young woman. His literature, taken as a whole, reveals these contradictions, his irritation with petty restrictions, his questing nature and his reflections on the rapidly changing world he lived in. Robertson says that he was:
… … deeply marked by living through the French revolution and the twenty-plus years of war that followed it. Intellectually, he was shaped by the Enlightenment, and by its commitment to understanding the world by means of empirical and historical study, though he rejected the egalitarianism and irreligion of the Enlightenment’s radical wing. (p. xiv)…
Lionised in Germany now, Goethe was not so popular in his own day.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/12/14/g...
August 12, 2021
Interesting in places, a little pedantic in others. I was hoping for something more biographical and linear than this, but it also does a good job of explaining Goethe’s thought and works in different aspects - love, nature, politics - in mostly clear language. Not a bad read, but also not exactly what I was looking for either. I feel I’d have gotten more out of this if I was more familiar with Goethe - not something I’d expect from a “very short introduction” to the writer and poet.
January 1, 2017
Nice introduction. Very well done and informative.
May 3, 2021
Not terribly sold on Goethe, but a very good introduction nonetheless.
Read
October 5, 2023I've been aware of Goethe since before I knew how to pronounce his name, but more recently I've encountered him in Andrea Wulf's books The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World and Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self, where he features as a minor character. I tried to read Faust in a couple translations earlier this year, but it wasn't the right time. Then a while back I read two Jane Austen novels for the first time, and decided I wanted to read every notable book written since 1800ish (not really really, but at least decently really), with contemporary biographies, history, and criticism as necessary.
Goethe was a big influence to Romanticism (the big idea in literature in the early 19th century: the Enlightenment's focus on rationality had gone too far, what's important is subjective individual experience and the natural world), although he himself was never really a part of it. By the time Romanticism took off, he had moved on to classicism, and even disdained Romanticism, calling it a "sickness" and "pathological". It seems like he never really did the same thing twice. Goethe feels definitely like an individual, rather than a member of a movement, which makes him a little harder to get a grip on. Additionally, he is one of those artists who are frequently called "untranslatable", which also makes it harder to see what's the big deal. But, like, am I supposed to learn German?
I've only read Werther, part of Rüdiger Safranski's biography, and this so far, so I don't feel like I've got a handle on Goethe yet, but with his reputation, I hope it will be worth the investment.
Goethe was a big influence to Romanticism (the big idea in literature in the early 19th century: the Enlightenment's focus on rationality had gone too far, what's important is subjective individual experience and the natural world), although he himself was never really a part of it. By the time Romanticism took off, he had moved on to classicism, and even disdained Romanticism, calling it a "sickness" and "pathological". It seems like he never really did the same thing twice. Goethe feels definitely like an individual, rather than a member of a movement, which makes him a little harder to get a grip on. Additionally, he is one of those artists who are frequently called "untranslatable", which also makes it harder to see what's the big deal. But, like, am I supposed to learn German?
I've only read Werther, part of Rüdiger Safranski's biography, and this so far, so I don't feel like I've got a handle on Goethe yet, but with his reputation, I hope it will be worth the investment.
April 8, 2024
I found out about the Very Short Introduction (VSI) series from a philosophy class that used Martin's Creativity: Ethics and Excellence in Science, which has Faustian Bargains as a topic. So it was mostly Faust that I knew Goethe from when I got the book. Since then, I've seen references to another of his books, The Sorrows of Young Werther, in several places, such as Frankenstein. From this introduction, I'm also interested in checking out Wilheim Meister's Apprenticeship and Götz von Berlichingen.
The other VSI books I've read have been philosophies: Ethics, Confucianism, Existentialism. This is the first I've read that is a biography. I felt I got a pretty full (though brief) picture of Goethe: His life, relationships, and works.
Goethe was a jack-of-all-trades. I know him from his literary works. But the book also introduces readers to some of his artwork (in the form of sketches) and discusses his foray into politics.
Goethe also took a "hands-on" interest in the natural sciences like geology and biology, even discovering for himself the intermaxillary bone in the human jaw not long after the time the medical community of the day had! One thing that stood out to me was how attitudes toward the sciences have shifted over time. As the book says:
I think that chapter, Nature, was my favorite. Lots of good stuff in here! Would like to revisit (and finish) Faust soon.
The other VSI books I've read have been philosophies: Ethics, Confucianism, Existentialism. This is the first I've read that is a biography. I felt I got a pretty full (though brief) picture of Goethe: His life, relationships, and works.
Goethe was a jack-of-all-trades. I know him from his literary works. But the book also introduces readers to some of his artwork (in the form of sketches) and discusses his foray into politics.
Goethe also took a "hands-on" interest in the natural sciences like geology and biology, even discovering for himself the intermaxillary bone in the human jaw not long after the time the medical community of the day had! One thing that stood out to me was how attitudes toward the sciences have shifted over time. As the book says:
It was still common in the 18th century to write about scientific topics in verse, as in the poetic account of plant reproduction, The Loves of the Plants (1791), by Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles).
I think that chapter, Nature, was my favorite. Lots of good stuff in here! Would like to revisit (and finish) Faust soon.
June 1, 2021
Been planning to read some of Goethe's works such as Faust and this is a very good intro. I've always thought it weird that one of the greatest figures of literature isn't as famous or often talked about as Shaksapeare or Chekov. I guess the reason has to do with his conservatism (he's against the French revolution and would prefer aristocracy/kingdom rather than democracy) and hence a preference for security rather than freedom; some of his discredited scientific ideas; and the glorification of his name during the heyday of german nationalism. But still, here is a guy who contributed greatly to literature, wrote significant contribitions to all genres of literature - novel, tragedies, journals, poetry, etc. while at the some time taking a government administration job, also did research on light (like Newton), morphology, architecture and so on. From the descriptions of his writings in this book, I gather than even at his most biased novels, he avoids the easy answers and built conflicts by creating strong opponents for his own ideas - a hallmark of a great writer. The guy was a bit of a dog too. He courted many girls and went through a lot relationships throughout his life (his first wife died) and even proposed to a 19-year old when he was 74. His life is an intersection between the old feudal world with piety, devotion to God, parents, land, king being slowly replaced with the ruthless machinery of the modern world.
July 15, 2019
This is a satisfying VSI about Goethe's entire life's work, from literature and politics to science. It surveys his literature (from *The Sorrows of Young Werther* to *Faust*) his critical stances on art (i.e. his classicism), his work in politics, his relationship to wars of revolution, and his dubious, though thoughtful, scientific theories. Additionally, historically contextualizes him, emphasizes his modernity, his suspicion of traditional religion and his Aristocratically-inflected cultural mores. The focus tends to be on Goethe's ideas and his productions but there are biographical details included. The overall impression of Goethe one gets is he was an intellectually robust man who was busy every second of his life during some of the most important transitional years in Western European history, 1749-1832.
July 28, 2018
I liked the subdivision into Chapters about Goethe's views of nature, religion, science, politics, etc. The book serves as a good understanding of the context of his biography and and views to his writings. I would recommend reading Faust or The Sorrows of Young Werther prior to this text, but reading this book prior to his other works.
June 6, 2020
I think I gained an appreciation for the struggling, conflicted weirdo Goethe was through reading this; I didn't know much about him before, and now I don't know a little less, and that's progress enough for me.
February 13, 2024
A very good introduction to Goethe. If you like me, only knew Goethe through The Sorrows of Young Werther and Faust, Part One, here is a chance to expand your horizon on this deeply conservative and controversial, yet fantastic, author and poet.
August 16, 2019
Fascinating, but the author has bland European humanistic prejudices. Lame.
June 18, 2022
A comprehensive and accessible introduction to the lifework of this amazing man. The author does an excellent job of explaining Goethe's context as well as his life work. This is a wonderful book
January 21, 2024
Really enjoyed but thought the book could’ve done a better job writing about his politics because I feel like that was glanced over a little too much
July 27, 2018
I came to this Very Short with a strong interest in the subject and some questions. Robertson does a fantastic job dealing with the complexities of Goethe's life and thought. Literature, Nature, Politics, Tragedy, and Religion are admirably covered. I was able to clearly see how the 19th C American Transcendentalists were drawn to Goethe's thought.
Excellent!
Excellent!
April 5, 2016
This is the perfect book on Goethe for someone like me.
I, regretfully, have never read Goethe's Faust and it's not likely that I'll ever get around to it.
This Very Short Introduction gives people, such as myself, easy access to the life/ideas of a very important thinker.
I, regretfully, have never read Goethe's Faust and it's not likely that I'll ever get around to it.
This Very Short Introduction gives people, such as myself, easy access to the life/ideas of a very important thinker.
November 17, 2016
Very interesting overview of Goethe's thinking and writings that helps illuminate what made him extraordinary, particularly for his times. Certainly makes me want to read some of his work.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews