In the decades after its publication, Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship served as a touchstone for such major philosophical and literary figures as Schopenhauer, Schleiermacher, and Schlegel, and was widely understood to be one of the greatest novels of the German canon. But in the decades and centuries following, the attention it has received in both disciplines has diminished in comparison to either Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther or his Elective Affinities. This volume follows the impetus of its early respondents to examine deeply what exactly Goethe's long and complicated novel is doing, and how it engages with problems and themes of human life. An interdisciplinary group of eminent scholars grapple with the novel's engagement with central philosophical questions such as individuality, development, and authority; aesthetic formation and narrative (and human) contingency; and gender, sexuality, and marriage. That these questions and their working-through in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre are in tension with one another speaks ultimately to how literature explores philosophical questions in ways that are open-ended, creative, and contain potential for new and different solutions to living with them. This unique philosophical approach to the form and purpose of a literary masterpiece illuminates new inroads into a novel at once famously complex and influential, and into the projects of one Germany's greatest writers.

Seduced by the chimerical world of the theatre and taking upon himself the grand ambition of becoming a successful performer and dramatist, the merchant's son Wilhelm Meister embarks on a tumultuous quest of self-discovery. Along his path he finds himself having to negotiate love, desire and the need to face up to his own past and responsibilities.

The first detailed reader's commentary on one of the seminal works of world literature. Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre is commonly acknowledged to have played a pivotal role in founding the genre known as the Bildungsroman. Although a wealth of critical material has accumulated since its publication in 1795-96, a detailed commentary in English on this novel of `apprenticeship' has been lacking from the corpus. Jane V. Curran's full-length commentary fills this gap. In her analysis, Curran presents the standard material familiar from traditional commentaries, but includes passages hitherto neglected, presenting new insights in a new form. Curran stresses the importance of narrative techniques, traces the development of the characters, and draws the reader'sattention to the intertextual echoes, the use of symbols, and the many instances of irony. Curran also points out parallels between Wilhelm Meister's experiences and Goethe's life, and illuminates contemporary issues that are touched on in the novel, particularly the development of the German theater. The book provides notes with additional information for the interpretation of Goethe's work, including factual details of general interest, scholarly sources, and background information. This is a vade mecum not only for students of Goethe and of German literature, but also for all those interested in the development of the Bildungsroman. Jane V. Curran is chair of the German Department, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries is a collection of carefully selected masterpieces of German literature in last two centuries. The most representative German writers of each period are brought together and represented by their best and finest works from the great epoch of Classicism and Romanticism to early modern literature of twentieth century: Vol. I & II: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Vol. III: Friedrich von Schiller Vol. IV: Jean Paul; Wilhelm von Humboldt; August Wilhelm Schlegel; Friedrich Schlegel; Novalis; Friedrich Hölderlin; Ludwig Tieck; Heinrich von Kleist Vol. V: Friedrich Schleiermacher; Johann Gottlieb Fichte; Friedrich Wilhem Joseph von Schelling; Ludgwig Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano; Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; Ernst Moritz Arndt; Theodor Kürner; Maximilian Gottfried von Schenkendorf; Ludwig Uhland; Joseph von Eichendorff; Adalbert von Chamisso; Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann; Friedrich Baron de la Motte-Fouqué; Wilhelm Hauff; Friedrich Rükert; August von Platen-Hallermund Vol. VI: Heinrich Heine; Franz Grillparzer; Ludwig van Beethoven Vol. VII: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; Bettina von Arnim; Karl Lebrecht Immermann; Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow; Anastasius Grün, Nikolaus Lenau; Eduard Mörike; Annette Elizabeth von Droste-Hülshoff; Ferdinand Freiligrath; Moritz Graf von Strachwitz; Georg Herwegh; Emanual Geigel Vol. VIII: Berthold Auerbach; Jeremias Gotthelf; Fritz Reuter; Adalbert Stifter; Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl Vol. IX: Friedrich Hebbel; Otto Ludwig Vol. X: Prince Otto von Bismarck; Count Helmuth von Moltke; Ferdinand Lassalle Vol. XI: Friedrich Spielhagen; Theodor Storm; Wilhelm Raabe Vol. XII: Gustav Freytag; Theodor Fontane Vol. XII: Helene Böhlau; Clara Viebig; Eduard von Keyserling; Thomas Mann; Ludwig Thoma; Rudolf Hans Bartsch; Emil Strauss; Hermann Hesse; Ernst Zahn; Jakob Schaffner Vol. XIV: Jakob Wassermann; Bernhard Kellermann; Max Halbe; Hugo von Hofmannsthal; Arthur Schnitzler; Frank Wedekind; Ernst Hardt

German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries is a collection of carefully selected masterpieces of German literature in last two centuries. The most representative German writers of each period are brought together and represented by their best and finest works from the great epoch of Classicism and Romanticism to early modern literature of twentieth century: Vol. I & II: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Vol. III: Friedrich von Schiller Vol. IV: Jean Paul; Wilhelm von Humboldt; August Wilhelm Schlegel; Friedrich Schlegel; Novalis; Friedrich Hölderlin; Ludwig Tieck; Heinrich von Kleist Vol. V: Friedrich Schleiermacher; Johann Gottlieb Fichte; Friedrich Wilhem Joseph von Schelling; Ludgwig Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano; Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; Ernst Moritz Arndt; Theodor Kürner; Maximilian Gottfried von Schenkendorf; Ludwig Uhland; Joseph von Eichendorff; Adalbert von Chamisso; Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann; Friedrich Baron de la Motte-Fouqué; Wilhelm Hauff; Friedrich Rükert; August von Platen-Hallermund Vol. VI: Heinrich Heine; Franz Grillparzer; Ludwig van Beethoven Vol. VII: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; Bettina von Arnim; Karl Lebrecht Immermann; Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow; Anastasius Grün, Nikolaus Lenau; Eduard Mörike; Annette Elizabeth von Droste-Hülshoff; Ferdinand Freiligrath; Moritz Graf von Strachwitz; Georg Herwegh; Emanual Geigel Vol. VIII: Berthold Auerbach; Jeremias Gotthelf; Fritz Reuter; Adalbert Stifter; Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl Vol. IX: Friedrich Hebbel; Otto Ludwig Vol. X: Prince Otto von Bismarck; Count Helmuth von Moltke; Ferdinand Lassalle Vol. XI: Friedrich Spielhagen; Theodor Storm; Wilhelm Raabe Vol. XII: Gustav Freytag; Theodor Fontane Vol. XII: Helene Böhlau; Clara Viebig; Eduard von Keyserling; Thomas Mann; Ludwig Thoma; Rudolf Hans Bartsch; Emil Strauss; Hermann Hesse; Ernst Zahn; Jakob Schaffner Vol. XIV: Jakob Wassermann; Bernhard Kellermann; Max Halbe; Hugo von Hofmannsthal; Arthur Schnitzler; Frank Wedekind; Ernst Hardt