A stunning hardcover edition of Goethe's four major works, together with a selection of his finest letters and poems.
One of the towering figures of world literature, Goethe has never held quite as prominent a place in the English-speaking world as he deserves. This collection shows that he is not only one of the very greatest European writers: he is also accessible, entertaining, and contemporary.
The
Sorrows of Young Werther
is a story of self-destructive love that made its author a celebrity overnight at the age of twenty-five. Its exploration of the conflicts between ideas and feelings, between circumstance and desire, continues in his controversial novel probing the institution of marriage,
Elective Affinities
. The cosmic drama of
Faust
goes far beyond the realism of the novels in a poetic exploration of good and evil, while
Italian Journey
, written in the author’s old age, recalls his youth in Italy and the impact of Mediterranean culture on a young northerner.
Translators include W. H. Auden, Louise Bogan, David Constantine, Barker Fairley, and Elizabeth Mayer.
Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a jacket. Everyman’s Library Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.