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Goethe: A Very Short Introduction

Ritchie Robertson

January 2016

ISBN: 9780199689255

160 pages
Paperback
174x111mm

In Stock

Very Short Introductions

Price: £8.99

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived to the age of 82 and wrote prodigiously in every genre: drama, poetry, fiction, autobiography, travel narrative, translation from French and Italian, and critical essays on art and literature, besides copious letters and diaries. Ritchie Robertson draws out key themes of his work and explains its lasting importance.

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Description

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived to the age of 82 and wrote prodigiously in every genre: drama, poetry, fiction, autobiography, travel narrative, translation from French and Italian, and critical essays on art and literature, besides copious letters and diaries. Ritchie Robertson draws out key themes of his work and explains its lasting importance.

  • Covers the life of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), and all his major works
  • Discusses the (often controversial) research which has changed the image of Goethe in the last few decades
  • Places Goethe in his historical context (the Holy Roman Empire; the Napoleonic Wars), and considers how this aids our understanding of his works
  • Part of the Very Short Introductions series - over seven million copies sold worldwide

About the Author(s)

Ritchie Robertson, Taylor Professor of German, University of Oxford

Ritchie Robertson is Taylor Professor of German in the University of Oxford. He is Research Director for the Modern Languages Faculty, co-director (with Carolin Duttlinger and Katrin Kohl) of the Oxford Kafka Research Centre, convenor of the Bithell Series of Dissertations in German, and editor of the new series Germanic Literatures to be published from 2013 by Legenda. He is the author of The 'Jewish Question' in German Literature, 1749-1939: Emancipation and its Discontents (OUP, 1999), Mock-Epic Poetry from Pope to Heine (OUP, 2009), and Kafka; A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2004). He has translated several German authors into English for the Oxford World's Classics and Penguin Classics series, and has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2004.

Table of Contents

    1:Love
    2:Nature
    3:Classical Art and World Literature
    4:Politics
    5:Tragedy
    6:Religion
    Further Reading
    Index

Reviews

"Robertsone points the reader interested in rediscovery to the best starting points." - Catholic Herald

"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 ... I can't this VSI highly enough." - ANZ LitLovers

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