Andrew Piper (1)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749- 1832) was a great genius of German literature, known for his contributions in literature, drama, poetry, philosophy, and science. He was a man of enormous energy, and unbounded curiosity and creativity, perhaps the last “Renaissance man” whose understanding could span the breadth and depth of European knowledge.

To this day, Goethe is honored as "the German Shakespeare" for his literary contributions, and his great tragic play Faust continues to be read and performed. While Goethe’s scientific contributions have not withstood the exacting tests of time, in his day he contributed to fields of anatomy, botany, physics, and mineralogy, and his early insights had a lasting influence on evolutionary thought in late 19th century Germany. Further, his influence in other realms can be traced to his contemporaries Herder and Schiller, as well as to Hegel, Schopenhauer, Schubert, Nietzsche, Jung, Wittgenstein, and Thomas Mann, among others.

In his contribution to the "Brief Lives" series of biographies, Andrew Piper faced the challenge of capturing this gigantic figure in a small book of 100 pages. He does an adequate job, managing to cover points high and low – thus we learn not only of Goethe's literary contributions but his travels, life events, and each of his several love affairs. Regarding the latter, one notes that Goethe's affairs of the heart coincided with periods of particular creativity.

Piper's biography traces the chronology of Goethe's life in 14 chapters: (1) Beginnings (on his parentage, and his childhood and adolescence in Frankfurt); (2) Sentimental Education (at Leipzig and elsewhere); (3) Early Fame (deriving from his 1773 historical drama Götz von Berlichingen; (4) Sorrows, Real and Imagined (referring to his semi – autobiographical epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther [Die Leiden des jungen Werthers]); (5) Weimar: Capital of the 18th Century (where he lived for the rest of his life, and joined the court of Duke Carl August); (6) Longing (his close relationship with Charlotte von Stein); (7) The Italian Journey (of 1786 to 1788); (8) Revolutions (covering the period of the French Revolution and subsequent invasion by France); (9) The Aesthetic Education of Man (covering the decade that encompasses his deep friendship with Schiller); (10) The Demonic Age (covering the production of Faust, the growth of Romanticism, and the Napoleonic invasion; (11) New Science, New Life (Goethe’s work on optics and the physics of light, and his publication of Wilhelm Meister’s Travels; (11) The Heavenly Archive (Faust, Part Two, and the publication of Goethe's collected works); and (12) Goethe without End (his death, and his lasting influence).

For a book of its size, Piper's biography offers a reasonable introduction to its subject. However, readers ought not expect more than a brief description of Goethe's main literary contributions, and nothing in the way of critical analysis. Likewise, Goethe's scientific work gets short shrift, and readers will have to seek elsewhere for a description. Oddly, this book contains no recommendations for further reading; however, this omission is a minor one, when a quick Library Thing search will turn up several. In sum, this small work meets the goals of the Brief Lives series, and should serve to expose a new generation of readers to the life and contributions of this extraordinary historical figure.… (altro)