The Essential Goethe / Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ; edited and introduced by Matthew Bell.

Chronology of Goethe's life and times -- Selected poems -- Egmont / translated by Michael Hamburger -- Iphigenia in Tauris / translated by David Luke -- Torquato Tasso / translated by Michael Hamburger -- Faust. A tragedy / translated by John R. Williams -- Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship -- Italian Journey: part one -- On German architecture (1772) -- Shakespeare: a tribute (1771) -- Simple imitation, manner, style (1789) -- Response to a literary rabble-rouser (1795) -- Winckelmann and his age (1805) -- Myron's cow (1818) -- On world literature -- On granite (1784) -- A study based on Spinoza (c. 1785) -- The metamorphosis of plants (1790) -- Toward a general comparative theory (1790-94) -- The experiment as mediator between subject and object (1792) -- The extent to which the idea "beauty is perfection in combination with freedom" may be applied to living organisms (c. 1794) -- Observation on morphology in general (c. 1795) -- Polarity (c. 1799) -- From Theory of color (1791-1807). Part five: relationship to other fields ; Part six: sensory-moral effect of color -- From On morphology (1807-17). The enterprise justified ; The purpose set forth ; The content prefaced -- The influence of modern philosophy (1817) -- Colors in the sky (1817-20) -- Problems (1823) -- Excerpt from Toward a theory of weather (1825) -- Analysis and synthesis (c. 1829) -- A more intense chemical activity in primordial matter (1826) -- Excerpt from The spiral tendency in vegetation (1829-31) -- Selections from Maxims and reflections.