The Essential Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was one of the greatest artists of the German Romantic period. Matthew Bell is professor of German and comparative literature at King's College London. His books include Goethe's Naturalistic Anthropology and Melancholia: The Western Malady.

Introduction vii Chronology of Goethe's Life and Times xxxiii Selected Poems 1 Egmont 41 Translated by Michael Hamburger Iphigenia in Tauris 107 Translated by David Luke Torquato Tasso 163 Translated by Michael Hamburger Faust. A Tragedy 249 Translated by John R. Williams Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship 371 Italian Journey: Part One 751 On Literature and Art 867 On German Architecture (1772) 867 Shakespeare: A Tribute (1771) 872 Simple Imitation, Manner, Style (1789) 875 Response to a Literary Rabble-Rouser (1795) 878 Winckelmann and His Age (1805) 881 Myron's Cow (1818) 903 On World Literature 908 On Philosophy and Science 913 On Granite (1784) 913 A Study Based on Spinoza (c. 1785) 916 The Metamorphosis of Plants (1790) 917 Toward a General Comparative Theory (1790-94) 937 The Experiment as Mediator between Subject and Object (1792) 940 The Extent to Which the Idea "Beauty Is Perfection in Combination with Freedom" May Be Applied to Living Organisms (c. 1794) 947 Observation on Morphology in General (c. 1795) 948 Polarity (c. 1799) 951 From Theory of Color (1791-1807) 952 Part Five: Relationship to Other Fields 952 Part Six: Sensory-Moral Effect of Color 960 From On Morphology (1807-17) 977 The Enterprise Justified 977 The Purpose Set Forth 978 The Content Prefaced 981 The Influence of Modern Philosophy (1817) 983 Colors in the Sky (1817-20) 986 Problems (1823) 987 Excerpt from "Toward a Theory of Weather" (1825) 988 Analysis and Synthesis (c. 1829) 993 A More Intense Chemical Activity in Primordial Matter (1826) 995 Excerpt from "The Spiral Tendency in Vegetation" (1829-31) 995 Selections from Maxims and Reflections 998