Hermann and Dorothea

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is widely considered the most important German writer, but that would truly belittle the span of his work. In fact, Goethe dabbled in poetry, drama, literature, theology and philosophy on a global stage, taking a great interest in world literature and culture. For that reason, he is a worldy figure, not simply a German one. Today Goethe is best remembered for his magnum opus Faust , a two-part drama still considered one of the world’s greatest works. Goethe is also celebrated for many of his poems, including the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, and novels like The Sorrows of Young Werther .
Hermann and Dorothea was a novella length work written in verse. It is a story of a young girl who flees the turmoil of the French Revolution and ends up discovering love. Goethe’s romance was very influential in his day, influencing the work of contemporaries like Arthur Hugh Clough, whose The Bothie borrows heavily from this work.