Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Victor Lange

Eric A. Blackall

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, a novel of self-realization greatly admired by the Romantics, has been called the first Bildungsroman and has had a tremendous influence on the history of the German novel. The story centers on Wilhelm, a young man living in the mid-1700s who strives to break free from the restrictive world of economics and seeks fulfillment as an actor and playwright. Along with Eric Blackall's fresh translation of the work, this edition contains notes and an afterword by the translator that aims to put this novel into historical and artistic perspective for twentieth-century readers while showing how it defies categorization.

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

Goethe, Volume 9

Adalbert Stifter (1805-68) is generally recognised in German-speaking countries to be the greatest prose-writer of Austria. First published in 1948, this was the first complete study of his work to appear in English. Stifter was born and dwelt in the village of Oberplan on the southern fringe of Bohemia. His life was uneventful, and Mr Blackall's concern is biographical study only so far as the life and background are important in a full understanding of the writings. His plan is to first give an account and analysis of Der Nachsommer, Stifter's greatest book and the work of his maturity, and to make this novel the key to all his other work as well as to his life and thought.

Adalbert Stifter: A Critical Study

Dr Blackall's 1959 book cuts across the usual distinction between 'literature' and 'linguistics' in the study of modern languages. It sheds light on the eighteenth century and the general movement from seventeenth-century language to ease, pliability and grace, and then to the tremendous literary achievement of the age of Goethe.

Eric A. Blackall

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