By common consent, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) is the foremost writer Germany has produced. Constantly experimenting with new styles and subjects, the prolific Goethe (pronounced GUR-tuh) continually reinvented his own authorial persona and seldom repeated himself. The widely imitated Goethe established whole new genres with a single work before moving on to something equally original with his next achievement. Aside from Faust, considered his masterpiece, Goethe is best known today for novels such as The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) and for his lyric poetry. Faust, written over 60 years of Goethe’s life, reflects the poet’s versatility both in its wideranging themes and in its dazzling array of different poetic styles. Goethe adapts the medieval legend of Dr. Faustus, a scholar who sells his soul to the Devil for knowledge and magical powers. Goethe’s treatment of this old story—updated for the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries—offered readers fresh insights into the central problems of their own turbulent age.
Renaissance and Reformation. During the sixteenth century two connected movements transformed the largely German-speaking lands of northern Europe. First, from its origins in fourteenth-century Italy, the Renaissance brought a new perception of humanity’s place in the world.
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