First published in 1972, Goethe presents a biography looking at one of the few great Europeans to be universally recognized as a hero of culture, and in the light of modern sociological thought puts the hero into his background, human, social and political. Goethe is seen in the context of his times- not as the Great Poet or the Great Lover but as the worried contemporary of the French Revolution and Napoleon. The author is much more interested than most biographers in the mature Goethe and the problems of the poet's old age. This stems from his intense preoccupation with Goethe's friend and biographer Eckermann, whose Conversations (for which Eckermann is ranked by many with Boswell) he is re-editing.

This is an interesting read for scholars of German language & literature and European literature.