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Roman Elegies and Other Poems and Epigrams (2e)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Translated by Michael Hamburger

Series: Poetica
Imprint: Anvil Press Poetry
Edition: 2nd
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
Paperback 2e (128 pages)
(Pub. Nov 1996)
9780856462740
Out of Stock
  • Description
  • Author
  • Reviews
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is mainly known to the English-speaking world as the author of the poetic drama Faust. In Europe – as poet, dramatist, novelist, art critic, literary theoretician, travel writer, author of a treatise on light and colour, and prolific correspondent – he is regarded as the supreme Romantic literary figure. This selection is a classic introduction to one of the giants of European literature. It collects all the beautifully crafted versions Michael Hamburger has made over many years from all periods of Goethe’s creative life, adding more than twenty new poems to Poems and Epigrams (1983), and including a complete version of Goethe’s erotic masterpiece, the Roman Elegies. The critical introduction provides a valuable account of a writer who was, in the words of his translator, ‘so many-sided as to constitute a whole literature’.

    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
    Goethe was born in Frankfurt and studied law in Leipzig and Strasbourg. He practised briefly in Frankfurt. The success of The Sorrows of Young Werther brought him to Weimar in 1775, to the court of Carl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, who became Grand Duke in 1815. Goethe was based there from ... read more
    Michael Hamburger
    Michael Hamburger (1924–2007) was a poet and critic of distinction as well as the outstanding translator of German poetry. His awards include the Schlegel-Tieck Prize (1981), the German Federal Republic’s Goethe Medal (1986) and the EC’s first European Translation Prize (1990) for Poems of Paul Celan . Five collections of his ... read more
    Praise for Michael Hamburger 'O'Driscoll manages to get the reader as close to Hamburger as possible in one book. It feels very much like spending a week at your grandfather's house - getting to listen to all his stories, roaming through cupboards, reading the works hidden inside.'
    Dominik Szczepaniak, DURA
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