Conversations of German Refugees ; Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years, Or, The Renunciants


Book Description

Goethe was a master of the short prose form. His two narrative cycles, Conversations of German Refugees and Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years, both written during a high point of his career, address various social issues and reveal his experimentation with narrative and perspective. A traditional cycle of novellas, Conversations of German Refugees deals with the impact and significance of the French Revolution and suggests Goethe's ideas on the social function of his art. Goethe's last novel, Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years, is a sequel to Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and to Conversations of German Refugees and is considered to be his most remarkable novel in form.




The German Refugees


Book Description

"A new translation by an award winning translator rescues Goethe's collection of stories, modelled on the Decameron, from being out of print in English." "A family of German nobles have been forced from their home on the left bank of the Rhine by the French Revolution. Their peace is further disrupted by the arguments between the young Karl, a supporter of the ideals of the revolution, and the other men. The Baroness saves the family situation by suggesting they amuse each other by telling stories." "There are seven in all: two short ghost stories, two amorous anecdotes and two more substantial moral tales, the whole being concluded with Goethe's richly worked, fantastic, symbolic, allegorical 'Fairy Tale'." "The German Refugees was first published in 1795."--BOOK JACKET.




Goethe and the Myth of the Bildungsroman


Book Description

A fresh reading of the Willhelm Meister novels that dismisses the notion of the Bildungsroman to reveal unities between the texts.







Essays on Art and Literature


Book Description

Part of an exhaustive series which provides English translations of a representative proportion of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's vast body of work, this volume contains such essays as "On Gothic Architecture", "On the Laocoon" and "Shakespeare: a Tribute."




The Apprenticeship Novel


Book Description

The idea that a young person can become adept in the art of life by passing through definite stages, until at last he becomes a master, lives at the core of the apprenticeship novel. Recognized among German critics as the «Bildungsroman», this type of novel has yet to be adequately defined on a grand scale for the English reader despite nearly two centuries of its development. In an attempt to describe the apprenticeship novel as a modifiable type in Western literature, Mr. Shaffner combines a theoretical stance with analyses of three concrete examples drawn from over a hundred potential candidates.




Elective Affinities


Book Description




The Sorcerer's Apprentice


Book Description

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" might conjure up images of Mickey Mouse from the Disney film Fantasia, or of Harry Potter. As this anthology reveals, however, "sorcerer's apprentice" tales--in which a young person rebels against, or complies with, an authority who holds the keys to magical powers--have been told through the centuries, in many languages and cultures, from classical times to today. This unique and beautifully illustrated book brings together more than fifty sorcerer's apprentice stories by a plethora of writers, including Ovid, Sir Walter Scott, and the Brothers Grimm. From Goethe's "The Pupil in Magic" to A.K. Ramanujan's "The Guru and His Disciple," this expansive collection presents variations of a classic passed down through countries and eras. Readers enter worlds where household objects are brought to life and shape-shifting occurs from human to animal and back again. We meet two types of apprentice: "The Humiliated Apprentice," a foolish bumbler who wields magic ineffectively and promotes obedience to authority; and "The Rebellious Apprentice" who, through ambition and transformative skills, promotes empowerment and self-awareness. In an extensive introduction, esteemed fairy-tale scholar Jack Zipes discusses the significance and meaning of the apprentice stories, the contradictions in popular retellings, and the importance of magic as a tool of resistance against figures who abuse their authority.




The German Tradition of Self-Cultivation


Book Description

Professor Bruford shows how the ideal of self-cultivation entered into the thought of a number of highly individual German philosophers, theologians, poets and novelists.