A masterful intellectual portrait Goethe: Life as a Work of Art is celebrated as the seminal
twenty-first-century biography of the writer considered to be the Shakespeare of German
literature. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) a remarkably prolific poet playwright
novelist and - as Rüdiger Safranksi emphasizes - a statesman and naturalist first awakened
not only a burgeoning German nation but the European continent with his electrifying novel The
Sorrows of Young Werther. Safranski has scoured Goethe’s entire oeuvre relying exclusively on
primary sources including his correspondence with contemporaries to produce a fresh and
authentic” (Economist) portrait of the avatar of the Romantic era. Skillfully blending artistic
analysis with swift sharp renderings” of the great political and intellectual figures Goethe
encountered [Safranski’s] portrait of the prolific genius leaves the reader with lasting awe
even envy” of a monumental legacy (The New Yorker). As Safranski ultimately shows Goethe’s
greatest creation even in comparison to his masterpiece Faust was his own life.
