Solid translations and, like all the volumes in Princeton's 12-volume Goethe series, the book is attractive with great typography. Much easier on the eyes than the Penguin editions.

This volume is a very accessible way to read Goethe for the first time, as well as revealing a new layer of depth for those who are more familiar with his essays and scientific studies.

When love and passion becomes an obsession,it get us into a vicious circle,that's what happened to werter the young author who was crazy in love with someone and who describes his tortures in a romantic style.Anyone may have lived this blind passion but few wrote it. An excellent book that narrates his story in letters he send to a friend to describe his deepest emotions.

Twenty years divides this wonderful book from the more popular, The Sorrows of Young Werther which was written when Goethe was quite young. Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship belongs to the second period of Goethe's life and his writings and is the purest representation of that second period, having been written over a ten-year period.

This novel is nothing less than a masterpiece of art of the highest order. The problems inherent in a surfeit of emotion and sentimental despair are solved in Wilhelm Meister. Instead of running rampant, as it did in Werther, enthusiasm is channeled in Wilhelm Meister. The protagonist has managed to make peace with the forces that threaten to annihilate him. His once gloomy and perturbed spirit is serene and vital.

More importantly, this harmony and peace have not been achieved through any kind of surrender or crushing blow to the spirit. Instead, the protagonist, once an ardent and high-spirited young man, has simply grown into a calm and serene man; one whose passion and ardor have not waned over the years but have simply ripened. He has managed to give up the foolish idealism of his youth and has built his trust in himself and his own instincts. The darkness of dreams, a landscape on which he used to flounder has become firmer and surer ground.

The characters in this book are blended perfectly: the softness and skepticism of Jarno, the commercialism of Werner, the polish of Lothario, the enthusiasm of the Harper, the vivacity of Philina and the mystic, ethereal nature of the highly spiritual Mignon. Goethe, of course, does justice to each, and places each in his proper element. The mild-hearted Wilhelm, so full of promise and hope, continues to struggle forward, through a myriad of complications toward his world of art.

Goethe, one of the greatest geniuses who ever lived, united all into a whole so perfect and perfectly harmonious, that Wilhelm Meister becomes nothing less than sheer poetry, the very height of German Romanticism at its finest. This marvelous book reveals life in all of its multi-layered existence; it uncovers the beauty and hidden meaning is the mundane; it reveals the perfection of the universe in all its clarity.

Far too many people are scared away from Goethe because of his towering intellectualism, but he wrote in a style the is both gorgeous and readable. Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship is the very pinnacle of German Romanticism and one of the greatest books of world literature. It would be a pity for anyone to miss it.

As one of the most prolific and multi-talented authors to ever set words to page, Goethe is often considered the master of early romantic works and even the patriarch of the modern novel. Fittingly, Goethe's numerous interests and telents, including law, geology, science and literature, come to life in Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship the precursor to Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years.

I caution all those who pick up this book to do so with grit and determination for it is not light reading. The density and complexity of the piece can be discouraging and the sometimes fantastical character encounters can leave you with a sense of shallowness and predictability. These opinions, however, are ones that fade away as the overall impact of the novel begins to set in and alter you perceptions of the world.

Goethe's romantic voice can be heard throughout, and, while many readers prefer the more adventurous and extravegant side of love, the romances here are shockingly harsh and true-to-life, which only add to the benefits of the work. To be sure adveture and extravegance are not spared.

Goethe was also the quitesential statesman of his time, and this meant ties to Freemasonry. What can be interpreted as Masonic overtones and undertones add a veil of mystery and adventure to the book, while philosophical exchanges leave the reader with points to consider, even in today's world.

My appreciation for this book stems from its uncanny insight into my present life and the lingering ideas it presented to me. Had I not read this novel I would surely be missing something extraordinary today.

I really wanted to love this book. I enjoyed reading Goethe's Italian Journey and I've read so many flattering things about Young Werther that I've looked forward for some time to the experience of finally reading it. Unfortunately, it just didn't grab me.

The positives include Goethe's poetic descriptions of nature and the powerful imagery they evoke and the frequently beautiful language with which Werther depicted his obsession with Lotte.

The primary problems I had with the work were the repetitiveness of Werther's self-pitying missives and a certain incredulity I could not shake relative to the foundations of his compulsion. In the final analysis, a persistent feeling that Werther was silly and unjustified in his fixation and self-indulgent in wallowing in his misery dulled the impact of his fate on my senses substantially.

I am hoping for better things from Faust...

What is it about this particular novella which inspired a series of youthful suicides throughout Europe soon after its publication? Why did Napoleon insist on keeping the French translation with him during his campaign in Egypt? How did Goethe succeed in capturing the poignancy of the human heart, while fascinating a jaded but "enlightened" 18th century public? The young German author touched a universal chord with this slender volume, in which he offers tender insight on such diverse Romantic subjects as Love, Religion, Nature and Man's relationships with God and his fellow men. Why do critics consider it a classic of both German and World Literature?

Presented in a quaint literary style, this story consists of confidential diary entries and letters to a trusted friend, Wilhelm, by a senstitive protagonist, with the addition of editorial notes. (The latter results from the inveitable drawbacks of first-person narratives.) The plot unfolds as Werther, a young nobleman who interests himself in the daily activities of the peasantry, is enjoying an extended holiday in a scenic area of Germany. Free to savor the magnificent natural beauty around him, Werther is soon dazzled by the numerous charms of the delightful Charlotte--daughter of a local town dignitary. This paragon of feminie virtue and attraction appears more sensual and maternal than truly sexual.

Alas, the incomparable Lotte is already engaged to absent Albert, due home soon. Is she too naive to understand that in Werther she has acquired an ardent admirer? Is she aware of his easily-inflamed fascination, or the violent depths of his stifled emotions? Is she oblivious or heartless to his passionate despair once her fiance has returned? Just how long can she juggle two lovers, or even control her own dainty heart--which Goethe chastely and tantalizingly hides from us?

Readers will be be swept away on the floodtide of Gothe's untamed emotions, as poor Werther faces the inevitable. Ah, but which act requires or proves the greater bravery: to terminate the heart's torment by the simple act of Suicide, or to accept Life's harshness by continuing a lonely, meaningless existence? Which Hell is it better or nobler to endure: that of rejecting God's gift or that of eternal separation from the Beloved? The strain of a prolonged "menage a trois" can not be permitted to endure--neither from a literary or a moral point of view.

The last entries painfully point the way as Werther's despair cascades into definitive--albeit negative--action. Weep, hope forlornly with this ardent young man, even rage at his fate; then be swept away into the maelstrom of thwarted dreams. Analyze and pity Germany's most famous pre-Romantic hero, as he struggles though this psychological novel, for Goethe plays upon the reader's memory's heartstrings with the skill of Ossian's agonized harper.

There is no doubt about the literary poignancy of this book, or for that matter the masterful mind of its author. But it must be said that the undeniably strong sorrows of young Werther came from an all-consuming love of himself-not from love of another. Or rather he seemed in love with the idea of having someone to consume his idle days and, what he imagined, his large and thoughtful mind. His precipice, from which he condescended to view his every move, thought and encounter, was lofty indeed.

The pastoral atmosphere of the book is what captivated this reader. It's a pity Werther couldn't heed Albert and Lotte's sound advice about retuning his strong emotions...or at least spend more time under Linden trees with his Homer (this would have been my suggestion to him). Perhaps it was the poetry of the equally love-torn Ossian, which came to replace his classic text, that helped spur on his emotional demise. Whatever the case, it was painful to read of his self-indulgent romance with his ideas of love and devotion. He was kidding himself in the grandest and noblest fashion imaginable.

Please don't think me a heartless soul, or someone who couldn't possible understand such an intense love; I just didn't see it that way. However much frustration I felt at Werther's extreme pathos, I remained in awe of the beauty of Goethe's emotive and descriptive writing. Am I contradicting myself here...with talk of emotion? You be the judge.

I won't bother to review Goethe's "Faust". It's ability to withstand the test of time and invade our lexicon is proof enough of its greatness and worth more than anything I could say. However, I would like to comment specifically on the Norton Critical Edition.

I was not particularly satisfied by this edition. Having never read Faust before, I was expecting this edition to contain within its copious annotations helpful summaries of what was going on in the play. Particularly in Part II, where things are often quite disorienting, a first-time reader would often be lost without some outside help. Unfortunately, this edition, despite all the extras it added, didn't contain what I was looking for.

If you are deeply interested in Faust, and familiar with the story itself, the annotations are amazingly detailed, describing the sources and motivations that guided Goethe. If you are a casual reader, however, they will rarely help you understand what is going on if you get confused. This edition is geared towards the scholarly, not the casual.

"Vainly in the day time labored, pick and shovel, clink and strike." Goethe worked on Faust for much of his career, but composed some of the best of Part II in a time of life when most are in their rocking chairs or in the intensive care ward of the local nursing home. Goethe in his late seventies and early eighties would rise in the early dawn and compose some of the best poetry written. "I would elevate my mind to a kind of productivity which brought all this forth, in a full state of consciousness and which pleases me still, even though perhaps I could never swim again in such a river." It has been said that German poetry is difficult to translate or untranslatable, and this seems true with some translations of Faust, but the Norton contains a superb effort by Walter Arndt which appears always so on the mark that one suspects Arndt actually embellishes the German, but, rather than quibble over accuracy, it is all so good you will hardly care. Goethe builds upon the medieval Faust legend as a skeleton for his own writing in epic-poem style with various meter fashioned to fit the subject. Faust, weary of the ways of the world (one can almost hear the 60s hippy) embarks on a journey of self-discovery, skirt chasing and empire building finally ending in his 100th year in the ultimate trip, with a little help from his friend, Goethe. This composition is remarkable in innumerable ways. One can use a thesaurus of superlatives: wonderful imagery, perfect choice of words, peerless imagination, beautiful poetry, a unity to the whole which is memorable, as well as numerous wonderful scenes and lines, and always an intelligence that seems to absorb and understand everything. Of course, one can differ with Goethe philosophically. There are other angles from which to view life than Faust and his Mephistophelean foil. And Faust, which contains all the universal ingredients, can be faulted at times, dwelling too much on the antique philosophy, politics and literary questions which interested Goethe in his long life. But all this seems irrelevant to Faust as a work of art, permanently canonized for its beauty and writing alone, whatever disparagement or praise one might hold for its meaning or content. The Norton Edition is edited by Cyrus Hamlin whose interpretive notes are scholarly, contain a subtle respect for Goethe, and are in themselves a book worth reading. The selections of Goethe comment and scholarship range from the brilliant to the outer eliptics of literary criticism, and the included illustrations and Goethe letters on composition are a nice touch. The work of Hamlin and the Arndt translation which here frame Goethe as the main event make the Norton Critical Edition of Faust (2000) one of the better books one is likely to pick up.

Certainly, the sixty years Goethe spent writing volumes I & II paid off. Unlike Shakespeare, there is a moral lesson which sums the human experience regardless of one's actual circumstances. By illusion and yearning are we enmeshed in lifes toils, only to find the simplicity of innocence and life's early beauty, before we possessed, was the greatest of our soul. Though greatly influenced by Shakespeare, Goethe takes the life's tale to another level which is wrapped in other dimensions of past, present, and future, in addition to heavens and hells. The Faustian choice is one made everyday and is weaved into every moment, until death and afterwards.
An understanding of Indian philosophy (i.e., Buddhism, Hinduism) and the Sanskrit texts brings a deeper depth of understanding, with their complexity and breadth giving greater meaning to a highly mystical and even transcendental text.

This review and the stars are limited to the Kaufmann translation rather than the substance of Faust. Though confessing personal irritation as to reviews dealing with translation (for after all, who cares, and we would rather have your learned opinion of the book, please), after enduring this translation, I have happily passed the forgoing neophyte point of view, being here subject, as one in a symphonic pit, to questionable playing destroying some very good music. One hesitantly criticizes a dead man(Kaufmann) credited with such a large and apparently well done body of work (though Kaufmann's translation of Heine appearing in Norton Second Edition of Faust (2001) is similarly scrummed up.),including Kaufmann's introduction here, which takes pain to reveal that translators take liberties with Goethe, but that the Kaufmann translation is faithful and literal, where possible. But, like a gullible freshman, Kaufmann sets himself up by (laudably) including on the left the original German so that line by line comparison with his translation on the right is possible, at least for those with rudimentary German. Proceeding on past the intro, and faced with the constant page by page temptation to actually read the German, suspicions of "mistakes", and more disturbingly an awkward and tortured text begin their insidious accumulation. Such problems the reader is to attribute directly to Goethe, for Kaufman has warned in his intro " Goethe was not always at his best", that Goethe's style is like "sapphires in the mud" with a lot of mud and an occasional sapphire, and further, forwarding the implication that much of Part II is only questionably worth persevering through, a statement which might be big news to some very reputable critics. The phalacy of blaming Goethe becomes palpable, even shocking, on comparison of the Kaufmann with the Walter Arndt translation in the Norton Second Edition, and also by reading of Goethe's letters and conversations in the Norton which reveal with certitude the always eloquent writing of this genius who took such obvious pains to communicate artistically and clearly his every word. Where Kaufmann is clumsy, off the mark, constantly mistranslating basic German words, and misinterpreting meaning so as to cause impossibility in understanding, the exact same lines in the Norton are understandable, poetic and eloquent. These are two different books, one hesitant, choppy and questionably accurate, while the other appears to create in English the masterpiece that is Faust. Recognizing that any translation is at least partly a matter of individual preference and taste, this reviewer would nevertheless have to recommend at least a glance at the Norton prior to spending the considerable time necessary to make it through this timeless classic.

I apologize for my ingorance if I'm wrong about this, but I don't believe anyone's translated Faust into English without trying to maintain a rhyme scheme. Readers of Homer will appreciate what I'm talking about when they consider Robert Fagles' wonderful new translations that are especially faithful and powerful because they don't compromise word-choice for what, in translation, can only be a synthetic kind of rhyme. I would much prefer a metrically unbalanced, blank verse extremely faithful word-for-word translation of Goethe than the forced-into-rhymed-verse Kaufmann has presented. I don't mean to belittle Kaufmann's abilities - for what his Faust is, it's great, possibly the best. But I feel like it's Kaufmann's Faust, not Goethe's. Some will argue that this is always the case with translation, but can't we come closer? Is the rhyme THAT important to us? I, for one, would gladly sacrifice it to authenticity.
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Actually, Stuart Atkins' translation is not force-rhymed, so that's probably the one to go with.

I want to open up by saying that this particular translation is above all others. The penguin version is awful. Secondly, I will say that "Faust" is beautifully written, putting Goethe on par with Shakespeare. Goethe captures the phenomena of boredom and low capacity of freedom. The Doctor, Faust, has studied philosophy, science, literautre, and so on, but still feels empty and disatisfed. What would you do? Would you, as he does, take company with the Devil?

There is humour, wit, eloquence of language, and detail. There has to be some reason why it is so praised by scholars today. Even Oscar Wilde, who wrote "The Picture of Dorian Gray," borrowed from it.

Be aware, though, of how difficult the play is to read.

This is a curious and interesting mix between novel and essay, written when Goethe was sixty (he lived much longer). Edward and Charlotte, aristocrat widowers, get married. They live in a beautiful castle surrounded by huge properties. Life there is easy and fun, since their main occupation is to remodel their estate and throw parties and entertainments. Then the Captain, a friend of Edward's who is down on his luck but also a smart guy, is invited by Edward to come and live with them while he is back on track. Charlotte thinks it is a good opportunity to have come with them her niece, Otilia, a pretty, shy and nice girl. Both guests turn out to be useful and likable, and the four of them get along well. That is, until the elective affinities are set to work. Charlotte and the Captain, as well as Otilia and Edward, have affinities of personality, tastes and approach to life, and that draws them together: they fall in love. As the situation becomes untenable, the Captain finds a job and leaves. Edward retires to antoher house he owns. Then Charlotte gives birth to a child she conceived with Edward and, when he knows it, leaves for war. It turns out that the child resembles the Captain and Otilia, because Edward was thinking of Otilia and Charlotte was thinking of the Captain at the moment of conception (ha!). After some time, the Captain and Edward talk, and decide to speak to Charlotte, proposing divorce. I won't spoil the ending.

With this novel, Goethe tries to demonstrate that love is not a matter of conscious decision-making; that we can not control at all who we fall in love with, and that it is absurd to try to fight against it (note: it is not a defense of promiscuity, but an argumentation about an undeniable truth). This, then, is a novel with a strong point to make, and successfully so. Goethe is a good writer, a great one indeed, and this novel is important, especially when you put it in the context of the Romantic movement of the time. The story is interesting, the more so because it is carefully designed to prove Goethe's point of view.

First published in 1809, Goethe's novel "Elective Affinities" is a disturbingly dark work about rational people driven to distraction by passion and love. The novel seems to be as much influenced by 'The Tale of Foolish Curiosity' found in "Don Quixote" (chapters 33-35) as by Goethe's own marital difficulties. In the novel, Goethe explores the nature of love, and questions whether we have any choice over who we love - or over anything at all.

"Elective Affinities" is the story of two married aristocrats, Eduard and Charlotte, who spend their time and money in general indolence, tinkering with the land on their estate. A friend of Eduard's, the Captain, has fallen into economic instability, and Eduard suggests that they invite the Captain into their home until he can reestablish himself. Charlotte initially objects, but sees it as an opportunity to withdraw Ottilie, her niece, from an unproductive school experience. Under the auspices of doing good turns for their friends, Eduard and Charlotte unwittingly throw the listless harmony of their lives into chaos.

When the passionate Eduard meets the youthful, energetic Ottilie, and the stoical Charlotte meets the likewise prudent Captain - the scientific principle of Elective Affinities that gives the novel its name begins to take effect. The results of introducing two new elements into a closed system makes up the action of the remainder of the novel. Among other things, the novel examines and subtly criticizes the state of class relations in Germany in the early nineteenth century, the limitations of children's education, and matters of faith.

Goethe's "Elective Affinities" is a quick read - Hollingdale's translation is user-friendly, becoming ornate only when faith to the original seems to demand it. Though not as famous as Goethe's "Sorrows of Young Werther," "Elective Affinities" is certainly worth a read.

If I were to teach a comparative literature class, this work would definitely be on the agenda. It is one of the true classics of Romantic art. We tend to forget that in his own era, Goethe was regarded as the preeminent genius of European letters. There is ample reason for the adulation. Whether writing a travelogue (The Italian Journey), a play (Faust), or a novel (Wether, Elective Affinities, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship), Goethe is the consummate artist. Personally, my only complaint about Goethe was that he didn't think much of Beethoven's music. Maybe we can attribute it to genius jealousy. However you feel about the man, you can not call yourself well-read if you haven't at least exposed yourself to Goethe's writing. Give this one a chance and you'll probably want to read more by this great (and I don't use that term loosely) writer.

Perfect for anyone who wants to read Goethe's peotry in German and understand it as well. For those familar with the German language, Goethe isn't the easiest writer to understand in German.

Johann's words are weaved into an intricate design that gives one a real peek into the life of Faust. With startling insights and a clear focused writing style, Johann has created a book that is easy to read, informative, and a must for your bookshelf.