JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE
\d͡ʒˈə͡ʊhan wˈʊlfɡaŋ ɡˈə͡ʊð], \dʒˈəʊhan wˈʊlfɡaŋ ɡˈəʊð], \dʒ_ˈəʊ_h_a_n w_ˈʊ_l_f_ɡ_a_ŋ ɡ_ˈəʊ_ð]\
Sort: Oldest first
-
One of the world's greatest poets; born at Frankfort on the Main, Aug. 28, 1749; died at Weimar, March 22, 1832. Among his early works are the tragedy "Prometheus" (1773); "Erwin and Elmira" (1774), a comedy; "Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774); "Clavigo", a tragedy (1774); "Stella" (1775), a drama suggested by Swift's life. In 1776 he became privy counselor to the reigning Duke of Weimar, and for some years was fully occupied with business of State. His leisure he devoted to composing, in prose, his great tragedy "Iphigenia", which was recast in verse in 1786; in writing the novel "Wilhelm Meister"; and in building up his greatest work, "Faust". The succession of his works from 1789 forward was: "Tasso", a drama (1789); "Metamorphosis of Plants" (1790); "The Grand Cophta", a dramatization of the affair of the Diamond Necklace; "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" (1796); "Hermann and Dorothea" (1796-97); "Elective Affinities" (1808); "Fiction and Truth" (1811); "West-Eastern Divan" (1814); "Wilhelm Meister's Years of Travel" (1821); second part of "Faust" (1831: the first part had appeared as "A Fragment" in 1790).
By Charles Dudley Warner
Word of the day
Snake's-head
- Guinea-hen flower; -- so called in England because its spotted petals resemble the scales of a snake's head.