The Autobiography of Goethe (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. Truth and Poetry: From My Own LifeBy Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Length31h 52m
About this audiobook
The Autobiography of Goethe, better known as Poetry and Truth, is less a factual memoir than a cultivated act of self-interpretation. Reconstructing Goethe's childhood in Frankfurt, his education, youthful loves, legal studies, and early literary formation, the work blends anecdote, reflection, and aesthetic theory. Its prose is lucid, ceremonious, and philosophically alert, placing private experience within the broader intellectual climate of the Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and emerging German classicism. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), poet, dramatist, novelist, scientist, and statesman, wrote from the vantage point of a long public life and extraordinary cultural authority. His encounters with law, religion, natural science, theatre, and European literature all inform the autobiography. The book also responds to his own fame, shaping the origins of the author of Werther and Faust into a coherent narrative of artistic vocation. This is an essential work for readers interested in literary self-fashioning, German intellectual history, and the making of modern authorship. It rewards patience with psychological subtlety and historical breadth, offering not merely Goethe's life, but his theory of how a life becomes literature.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes.
- The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists.
- A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing.
- A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings.
- Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life.
- Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance.
- Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.9 (24)
Includes Goodreads
GenreBiography and Memoir
Length31 hrs 52 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateDec 12, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
11FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 8)
2Synopsis
12FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 9)
3Historical Context
13FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 10)
4FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 1)
14FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 11)
5FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 2)
15FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 12)
Show all chaptersShow less
6FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 3)
16FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 13)
7FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 4)
17Analysis
8FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 5)
18Reflection
9FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 6)
19Memorable Quotes
10FROM MY OWN LIFE. (pt. 7)
Die Meisterwerke der Weltliterature (Kommentiert)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jules Verne, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll, Selma Lagerlöf, Sigmund Freud, Johanna Spyri, Theodor Storm, Rainer Maria Rilke, Charles Dickens, Stefan Zweig, Heinrich Heine, Honoré de Balzac, Theodor Fontane, Karl May, Gottfried Keller, Mark Twain, Heinrich Mann, Else Lasker-Schüler, Robert Musil, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Arthur Schopenhauer, Robert Louis Stevenson, Gustav Freytag, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, Heinrich von Kleist, William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad, Jane Austen, Herman Melville, Guy de Maupassant, Walter Scott, Jonathan Swift, Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm, Alexandre Dumas, Rudyard Kipling, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Homer, O. Henry, Voltaire, Lew Wallace, John Galsworthy, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Marcus Aurelius, Hans Christian Andersen, Anton Pawlowitsch Tschechow, Platon, Friedrich Nietzsche, Iwan Sergejewitsch Turgenew, Tacitus, Nikolai Gogol, Miguel de Cervantes, Mary Shelley, Thomas Wolfe, Emile Zola, Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski, Leo Tolstoi, Joseph Roth, Joseph von Eichendorff, Kurt Tucholsky, Iwan Alexandrowitsch Gontscharow, Oswald Spengler, Moliere, Alfred Adler, Sophie von La Roche, Klaus Mann, Rumi1256h 15m$3 · $0.00
Die großen Liebes-Klassiker der WeltliteraturJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, Stendhal, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Victor Hugo, Jane Austen, Alexandre Dumas, Rudyard Kipling, George Sand, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Eugenie Marlitt, Leo Tolstoi, Elisabeth Bürstenbinder, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos261h 10m4.5 (13)$1 · $0.00
Harvard Classics Anthology - Complete 51 VolumesJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Thomas Carlyle, Plato, René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Charles Darwin, Martin Luther, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, Euripides, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charles Lamb, Henry David Thoreau, Samuel Johnson, John Stuart Mill, David Hume, Joseph Addison, John Locke, John Fletcher, Francis Beaumont, Leigh Hunt, Epictetus, Thomas De Quincey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jonathan Swift, Christopher Marlowe, Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm, William Hazlitt, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Daniel Defoe, Aesop, Richard Henry Dana, John Dryden, Philip Massinger, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, John Ruskin, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ernest Renan, Robert Burns, David Garrick, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Webster, Izaak Walton, John Bunyan, James Russell Lowell, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Homer, Edmund Burke, Plutarch, Molière, Aeschylus, Michael Faraday, Sophocles, William Makepeace Thackeray, Benjamin Franklin, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Voltaire, Robert Browning, Oliver Goldsmith, Thomas Dekker, John Milton, Aristophanes, Blaise Pascal, Virgil, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Simon Newcomb, William Penn, Walter Bigges, Philip Sidney, Herodotus, Walter Raleigh, Francis Bacon, Giuseppe Mazzini, Francis Pretty, George Berkeley, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, Alessandro Manzoni, Abraham Cowley, Michel de Montaigne, Ben Jonson, John Woolman, Benvenuto Cellini, Sydney Smith, Jean Froissart, William Henry Harrison, William Harvey, Marcus Aurelius, Hans Christian Andersen, Thomas Malory, George Gordon Byron, Thomas à Kempis, Richard Steele, Thomas Browne, Archibald Geikie, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Tacitus, William Roper, Hippocrates, Miguel de Cervantes, Thomas More, Friedrich von Schiller, Philip Nichols, Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Pliny the Younger, Edgar Alan Poe, Saint Augustine, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz, Francis Drake, Edward Haies, Niccolo Machiavelli, Ambroise Paré, William A. Neilson986h 28m$0.99 · $0.00
Die größten Meister der deutschen LyrikJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Rainer Maria Rilke, Joachim Ringelnatz, Christian Morgenstern, Georg Herwegh, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Achim von Arnim, Theodor Fontane, Frank Wedekind, Wilhelm Hauff, lhelm Hauff, Karl May, Bettina von Arnim, Clemens Brentano, Eduard Mörike, Joseph von Eichendorff, Gustav Freytag, Franz Werfel, Willibald Alexis, Leopold Schefer, Gottfried Keller, Wilhelm Busch, Theodor Storm, Hermann Löns, Peter Rosegger, Louise Otto, Erich Mühsam224h 48m$2 · $0.00
Harvard Classics (All 51 Volumes)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Thomas Carlyle, Plato, René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Charles Darwin, Martin Luther, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, Euripides, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charles Lamb, Henry David Thoreau, Samuel Johnson, John Stuart Mill, David Hume, Joseph Addison, John Locke, John Fletcher, Francis Beaumont, Leigh Hunt, Epictetus, Thomas De Quincey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jonathan Swift, Christopher Marlowe, Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm, William Hazlitt, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Daniel Defoe, Aesop, Richard Henry Dana, John Dryden, Philip Massinger, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, John Ruskin, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ernest Renan, Robert Burns, David Garrick, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Webster, Izaak Walton, John Bunyan, James Russell Lowell, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Homer, Edmund Burke, Plutarch, Molière, Aeschylus, Michael Faraday, Sophocles, William Makepeace Thackeray, Benjamin Franklin, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Voltaire, Robert Browning, Oliver Goldsmith, Thomas Dekker, John Milton, Aristophanes, Blaise Pascal, Virgil, Simon Newcomb, William Penn, Walter Bigges, Philip Sidney, Herodotus, Walter Raleigh, Francis Bacon, Giuseppe Mazzini, Francis Pretty, George Berkeley, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, Alessandro Manzoni, Abraham Cowley, Michel de Montaigne, Ben Jonson, John Woolman, Benvenuto Cellini, Sydney Smith, Jean Froissart, William Henry Harrison, William Harvey, Marcus Aurelius, Hans Christian Andersen, Thomas Malory, George Gordon Byron, Thomas à Kempis, Richard Steele, Thomas Browne, Archibald Geikie, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Tacitus, William Roper, Hippocrates, Miguel de Cervantes, Thomas More, Friedrich von Schiller, Philip Nichols, Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Pliny the Younger, Edgar Alan Poe, Saint Augustine, Brinsley Sheridan, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz, Francis Drake, Edward Haies, Niccolo Machiavelli, Ambroise Paré, William A. Neilson987h 23m4.5 (2.4K)$0.99 · $0.00
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