BRIEF LIVES: JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

by Andrew Piper

Andrew Piper's biography is a scrupulously researched study of this most influential of German writers. Goethe was a polymath whose life spanned the European Enlightenment, and who in turn had a huge impact on European philosophy, science and literature. His magnum opus, Faust, has been posited as the first truly modern work of literature.

This biography explores the preoccupations that drove Goethe to become a prolific poet, novelist and playwright. It also analyses one of the most renowned and fruitful friendships in European literary history: that between Goethe and his contemporary Friedrich von Schiller. Brief Lives: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is essential reading for anybody wishing to understand the history of eighteenth-century literature, philosophy and culture, and the foundations of modernity.

Publication date: 01/04/2010