Goethe

A ground-breaking biography of one of the greatest writers in history, and the masterpiece that changed our world.

Auteur

A.N. Wilson was born in 1950 and educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is one of the outstanding biographers of our time - his biographies of Tolstoy, C. S. Lewis, Milton and Hilaire Belloc are beyond compare.

In 2007, Wilson's novel, Winnie and Wolf, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and in 2020 The Mystery of Charles Dickens was published to great critical acclaim. He lives in North London.

Texte du rabat

A.N. Wilson is a noted and prize winning biographer with studies of Tolstoy, Dickens, Milton and C.S. Lewis to his credit among others. Here he turns his outstanding gifts to a study of the life and thought of Goethe - poet, dramatist, politician. Goethe's life touched every aspect of what made the world become modern. And the great poetic drama of Faust is in essence the story of this.

Not a biography in the traditional sense, Wilson breaks the mould - it is the portrait of an age seen through the prism of Goethe's continuing obsession with the Faust myth - the story of a German necromancer who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. The relevance of this will not escape the modern reader and Goethe is shown to be one of the great prophets of modern Europe, the Europe of today.

Résumé

"Rich and full and passionate and intelligent and deeply needed for these murky times." -Ben Okri

"characteristically provocative and accessible... Splendid on the social detail and the facts of Goethe's life." -Literary Review

"Exuberant and wide-ranging" -Miranda Seymour, author of The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys

"Wilson's Goethe is a serious work in an increasingly trivial time, a book that sheds light - mehr Licht! - as the age darkens. For that much, and for the so much more that it offers, it is to be treasured." -John Banville, the New Statesman

"A. N. Wilson's biography of the German polymath is wild, brilliant and has all the intelligence to rival its subject" -Frances Wilson, the Telegraph

"[...] this is a wonderful book. You really will understand Faust better after reading it." -Ferdinand Mount, The Oldie

Contenu

CONTENTS

A Note on Translations
Timeline

1. These Very Serious Jokes
2. Turning Life Into a Picture
3. The Spirit of Nature - Where are you, Faust?
4. Some Notes on Suicide
5. Bildung
6. Weimar
7. Archbishop of Titipu
8. Italy
9. Vulpius
10. War
11. The Friendship With Schiller
12. The Parades of Death
13. Demons
14. Ottilie
15. Eckermann
16. The Myth of Weimar
17. Soon, Peace

Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Notes
Index