The Cambridge Companion to Goethe

Description

The Cambridge Companion to Goethe provides a challenging yet accessible survey of this versatile figure, not only one of the world's greatest writers but also a theatre director and art critic, a natural scientist and state administrator. The volume places Goethe in the context of the Germany and Europe of his lifetime. His literary work is covered in individual chapters on poetry, drama (with a separate chapter on Faust), prose fiction and autobiography. Other chapters deal with his work in the Weimar Theatre, his friendship with Schiller, his scientific studies and writings, his engagement with the visual arts, with religion and philosophy, the controversies surrounding his political standpoint and the impact of feminist criticism. A wide-ranging survey of reception inside and outside Germany and an extensive guide to further reading round off this volume, which will appeal to students and specialists alike.

Lesley Sharpe is Professor of German at the University of Bristol. She is the author of Schiller and the Historical Character and Friedrich Schiller: Drama, Thought and Politics (Cambridge, 1991). She has written widely on Schiller, Goethe and women writers of the eighteenth century and from 1994-2000 was Germanic Editor of the Modern Language Review.

"Sharpe's beautifully edited book offers timely essays on the most significangt aspects of Goethe's monumental work... This remarkable set of essays avoids repetition and oversimplifcation while reflecting prudently on the presen status of Goethe scholarship. highly recommended for all academic and public collections." Choice "In a word, this is without a doubt a highly useful book...It should be of great use to the non-Germanist, and certainly should find its place in many an introductory undergraduate and graduate class." German Studies Review, Horst Lange