About the book: year / The life of the last universal genius Rüdiger Safranski recreates on the basis of primary sources - works, letters, diaries, conversations, testimonies of contemporaries, and therefore the image of Goethe in His biography turns out to be unusually lively: a young man from a good family, a student forever in love, he becomes the most popular author, gets a well-paid position, is interested in natural sciences, flees to Italy, lives with his beloved woman outside of marriage - and at the same time creates his unforgettable works. But this is not enough for him: he wants his life itself to become a work of art. In his book, Safranski masterfully reconstructs the life of Goethe, allowing us to feel like contemporaries of this man and understand how Goethe became what he became.