Hermann and Dorothea

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 134K words
Chapters: 14

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Hermann and Dorothea by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheAuthor: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832,Language: English, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Nov 1, 1999

Editor's review

Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea is set in a small eighteenth-century German town and, in classical hexameter lines, tells of a young man and woman who meet and fall in love amid the tide of wartime refugees. The work is short but interweaves personal feeling with the upheavals of the age, offering both idyllic everyday detail and serious reflection on order, duty, and goodwill. Goethe deliberately adopts a meter close to Homeric epic; the language is restrained and gentle, the pace unhurried, and the poem rewards quiet, attentive reading. For readers who wish to understand the classical style of German literature or to see another side of Goethe's work through narrative poetry, this is an accessible and highly accomplished piece. The English translation preserves the original line breaks and sense of rhythm and is suitable for reading in parallel. As you read, notice how dialogue advances the plot and how Goethe uses everyday scenes to express a mild judgment on human nature and society.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in German literature and Goethe's works who wish to broaden their reading
Lovers of narrative poetry and classical meter willing to read slowly and savor the rhythm of language
Literary enthusiasts studying eighteenth-century European social customs and the theme of war refugees
Beginners who want to encounter Goethe's narrative work in a shorter form

Not a good fit for

Readers of popular fiction who prefer fast plots and strong conflict
Those impatient with verse line breaks and classical meter who want only a prose story
Beginners who need detailed notes and a scholarly introduction to understand the text

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the storyline, then return to examine the dialogue and scene descriptions closely.
Use background material on Goethe's life and eighteenth-century German history to understand the poem's period atmosphere.
Try reading some lines aloud to feel the rhythm of the hexameter and how the English translation handles it.
After finishing, compare it with The Sorrows of Young Werther to appreciate the differences in Goethe's style across periods.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a prose novel or a poetic work?

It is a narrative poem, written in classical hexameter in the original, and the English translation also preserves line breaks and rhythm. It should not be skimmed like an ordinary novel; it is better read slowly, attending to the rhythm of the lines and how dialogue advances the story.

Can I read this directly without having read other Goethe works?

Yes. The work is short and its plot is clear, and it does not depend on prior knowledge of other works. To better understand its classical style, you might first learn about Goethe's embrace of classical form after his Italian journey.

What reading level is the English translation suited to?

The translation's language is generally plain, but the verse line breaks and some eighteenth-century usage require a certain foundation in English reading. Readers at university English level or accustomed to reading English poetry will find it easier to enter; beginners may read slowly with a dictionary.

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About the author

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832 Author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is a highly important writer in the history of German literature, whose work spans poetry, fiction and drama. The library holds 75 of his works, including the tragedy Faust: Der Tragödie erster Teil in several editions and translations, the epistolary novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther — Band 2, and the play Iphigeneia Tauriissa. Faust centers on a scholar's pact with the devil, combining philosophical reflection with poetic language; Die Leiden des jungen Werther uses the epistolary form to portray the conflict between personal feeling and social constraint. Goethe's works cover a wide range of subjects and combine lyricism with philosophical depth, exerting a profound influence on German literature and later European writing. Public information is limited, so biographical details are omitted here.