Elective Affinities

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre-director, and critic. Celebrated as a polymath and often considered the most influential writer in the German language, Goethe produced a wide range of works including plays, poetry, aesthetic criticism, and treatises on anatomy, botany, and color. After the success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, he immersed himself in an intellectual and cultural scene that would become the basis of Weimar Classicism. His most famous drama, Faust, built on and crystalized the "deal with the devil" trope that would remain a mainstay of popular dramatic fiction. In his time, he was treasured as a living classic, and many of his poems were set to music by the top composers of the era including Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert.