The Autobiography of Goethe (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. Truth and Poetry: From My Own LifeBy Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Length32h 19m
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
GenreBiography and Memoir
Length32 hrs 19 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateDec 12, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
11The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 7)
2Introduction
12The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 8)
3Synopsis
13The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 9)
4Historical Context
14The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 10)
5The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 1)
15The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 11)
Show all chaptersShow less
6The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 2)
16The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 12)
7The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 3)
17The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 13)
8The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 4)
18Analysis
9The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 5)
19Reflection
10The Autobiography of Goethe (pt. 6)
20Memorable Quotes
The Complete Plays of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Annotated)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe37h 32m$2 · $0.00
Aus meinem Leben. Dichtung und Wahrheit (Kommentiert)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe33h 52m$1.50 · $0.00
The Complete Poems (Annotated)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe18h 4m$2 · $0.00
Goethe: Romane & Novellen (Kommentiert)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe83h 18m$1 · $0.00
Wilhelm Meisters theatralische Sendung, Lehrjahre & Wanderjahre (Kommentiert)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe56h 42m$1.50 · $0.00
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship & Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (Annotated)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe42h 10m$2 · $0.00
Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand (Kommentiert)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe5h 37m$1 · $0.00
Die Leiden des jungen Werther (Klassiker der Weltliteratur) (Kommentiert)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe6h 27m$1 · $0.00
Pakt mit dem Teufel: Meisterwerke der Fantasie (Kommentiert)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Honoré de Balzac, Felix Salten, E .T. A Hoffmann, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Klaus Mann, Oscar Wilde76h 17m$1 · $0.00
The Elective Affinities (Annotated)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe12h 17m$2 · $0.00
The Greatest Religious Novels of All Time (Annotated)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gustave Flaubert, Mark Twain, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Dante Alighieri, George MacDonald, Anatole France, Henry Van Dyke, Robert Hugh Benson, Arthur Christopher Benson, Leonid Andreyev, John Bunyan, Grace Livingston Hill, Voltaire, Paul Laurence Dunbar, John Milton, Charles M. Sheldon, Marie Corelli, John Henry Newman, James Joyce, G. K. Chesterton, Friedrich Nietzsche, Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Prentice Mulford313h 43m$2 · $0.00
The Collected Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Annotated)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe199h 46m$2 · $0.00
The Man Who Was Goethe: Memoirs, Letters & Essays (Annotated)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe79h 58m$2 · $0.00
THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER (Literary Classics Series) (Annotated)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe5h 4m$2 · $0.00
The Essential Works of Goethe (Annotated)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe162h 54m$2 · $0.00
The Complete Harvard Anthology of the Greatest Works of World Literature (Annotated)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Thomas Carlyle, Plato, Charles Darwin, Dante Alighieri, Euripides, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charles Lamb, Samuel Johnson, John Stuart Mill, David Hume, Joseph Addison, 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, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, John Ruskin, Robert Burns, David Garrick, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Izaak Walton, John Bunyan, Homer, Edmund Burke, Plutarch, Molière, Aeschylus, Sophocles, William Makepeace Thackeray, Benjamin Franklin, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Robert Browning, Oliver Goldsmith, John Milton, Aristophanes, Virgil, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, William Penn, Philip Sidney, Francis Bacon, Adam Smith, Alessandro Manzoni, Abraham Cowley, Ben Jonson, John Woolman, Sydney Smith, Marcus Aurelius, Hans Christian Andersen, George Gordon Byron, Thomas à Kempis, Richard Steele, Thomas Browne, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Miguel de Cervantes, Friedrich von Schiller, Pliny the Younger, Saint Augustine1376h 54m$2 · $0.00
Goethe: Complete Poetry (Annotated)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe18h 5m$2 · $0.00
Herz-Sammelband zum FestJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, Stendhal, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Dickens, Stefan Zweig, Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem, William Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë, Anne Brontë, Emily Brontë, Victor Hugo, Jane Austen, Guy de Maupassant, Walter Scott, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Alexandre Dumas, Rudyard Kipling, George Sand, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Eugenie Marlitt, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Leo Tolstoi, Wilhelmine Heimburg, Gottfried von Straßburg, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Sophie von La Roche, Hedwig Courths-Mahler684h 58m$1 · $0.00
Iphigenia in TaurisJohann Wolfgang von Goethe1h 38m$2 · $0.00
Das große Buch vom WeihnachtsmannJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johanna Spyri, Theodor Storm, Rainer Maria Rilke, Charles Dickens, Hermann Löns, Heinrich Heine, Theodor Fontane, Karl May, Oscar Wilde, Eduard Mörike, Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem, Peter Rosegger, Charlotte Brontë, Victor Hugo, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, O. Henry, G. K. Chesterton, Hans Christian Andersen, Joseph von Eichendorff, Joachim Ringelnatz, Wilhelmine Heimburg, Kurt Tucholsky, Luise Büchner, Brüder Grimm, Victor Blüthgen, Anna Ritter, Hedwig Courths-Mahler, E.T.A. Hoffman, Frances Hodgson Burnett)508h 56m$1 · $0.00
Defying JihadEsther Ahmad8h 50m$20
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m$24 · $0.00
Frederick Douglass: All 3 Memoirs in One VolumeFrederick Douglass42h 36m$1 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m$26 · $0.00
Ulysses S. Grant: Life of the Fearless General & Commander-in-Chief (Complete Edition - Volumes 1&2)Ulysses S. Grant30h 34m$2 · $0.00
Left for DeadEbony Canion5h 34m$17
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m5.0 (1)$24 · $0.00
A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings With George Müller (The Complete Four-Volume Edition)George Müller43h 37m$2 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m5.0 (2)$29 · $0.00
Scandal Between the Sheets & Stranded with the Tempting StrangerBrenda Jackson9h 22m$24 · $0.00
You may also like
A Way in the WorldV. S. Naipaul11h 40m$23
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol 23Robert Louis Stevenson13h 32m$2.30
The Complete Works: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Essays, Memoirs and Letters (Annotated)Henry James758h 45m$2 · $0.00
ConvictionsMarcus J. Borg6h 11m$24 · $0.00
Films of EndearmentMichael Koresky9h 30m$29 · $0.00
The Marriage Trap: The new 2026 story of rebellion and freedom from the bestselling author of The Radio Hour. For readers of Lessons in ChemistryVictoria Purman8h 55m$29 · $0.00
Lucky LoserMichael Kosta8h 25m$7 · $0.00
How to Write an Autobiographical NovelAlexander Chee8h 28m$20
Clearing in the West. My Own StoryNellie Letitia McClung13h 19m$2 · $0.00
Good Game, No RematchMike Drucker7h 28m$24 · $0.00
The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (Annotated)Charles Darwin3h 37m$2 · $0.00
The Education of Henry AdamsHenry Adams21h 45m$32
Complete Works of Henry James: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Essays, Autobiography and Letters (Annotated)Henry James751h 32m$3 · $0.00
Peter Whiffle : His life and worksCarl Van Vechten4h 31m$1 · $0.00
Edgar DegasNathalia Brodskaya, Edgar Degas3h 38m$16 · $0.00
Our Friend John BurroughsClara Barrus5h 30m$2 · $0.00
Finding Renee RichardsJulie Kliegman7h 13m$24 · $0.00
Persons and Places: The Background of My LifeGeorge Santayana11h 23m$1 · $0.00
TurnerW. Cosmo Monkhouse3h 1m$2 · $0.00
Some Thoughts Concerning EducationJohn Locke9h 17m$1 · $0.00