Wilhelm Meister- the hero of the story – undergoes a journey of self-realization. The story centres upon Wilhelm’s attempt to escape what he views as the empty life of a bourgeois businessman. After a failed romance with the theatre, Wilhelm commits himself to the mysterious Tower Society.
Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years or His Travels – Consisting largely of discrete short stories and novellas woven together with elements of the epistolary novel, lengthy sections of aphorisms, and several interspersed poems, the sequel is a treat to read! A major theme running through the various parts of the novel is that of ‘Entsagung, ‘ translatable as ‘renunciation.’ The most famous section of the novel is probably the episode in which the protagonist and his son Felix visit the ‘Pedagogical Province.’
A propos de l’auteur
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and statesman, best known for his tragic play, Faust. A literary celebrity by the age of 25, Goethe was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Karl August, following the success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. He was also an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement.