《浮士德（英文）》青少年励志教育丛书.pdf

Faust
by Johann W. Geothe
Translated by Anna Swanwick ( 1808 )
Introductory Note
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the greatest of German men of letters, was
born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, August 28, 1749. His father was a man of
means and position, and he personally supervised the early education of his
son. The young Goethe studied at the universities of Leipsig and Strasburg,
and in 1772 entered upon the practise of law at Wetzlar. At the invitation of
Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, he went in 1775 to live in Weimar,
where he held a ession of political offices, ing the Duke's chief
adviser. From 1786 to 1788 he traveled in Italy, and from 1791 to 1817
directed the ducal theater at Weimar. He took part in the wars against
France, 1792-3, and in the following year began his friendship with Schiller,
which lasted till the latter's death in 1805. In 1806 he married Christiane
Vulpius. From about 1794 he devoted himself chiefly to literature, and after a
life of extraordinary productiveness died at Weimar, March 22, 1832. The
most important of Goethe's works produced before he went to Weimar were
his tragedy "Gotz von Berlichingen" (1773), which first brought him fame, and
"The Sorrows of Young Werther," a novel which obtained enormous
popularity during the so called "Sturm und Drang" period. During the years at
Weimar before he knew Schiller he began "Wilhelm Meister," wrote the
dramas, "Iphigenie," "Egmont," and "Torquato Tasso," and his "Reinecke
Fuchs." To the period of his friendship with Schiller belong the continuation
of
"Wilhelm Meister," the beautiful idyl of "Hermann and Dorothea," and the
"Roman Elegies." In the last period, between Schiller's death in 1805 and his
own, appeared "Faust," "Elective Affinities," his autobiographical "Dichtung
und Wahrheit" ("Poetry and Truth"), his "Italian Journey," much scientific
work, and a series of treatises on German Art.
Though the foregoing enumeration contains