Goethe’s second novel Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship depicts parts of his early life
An intriguing detail about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is that he hails from a prosperous and well-respected family. His mother Katharina Elisabeth Goethe, known as "Frau Rat," was blessed with great knowledge, while his father Johann Caspar Goethe was a renowned member of the Frankfurt City Council.
Little Goethe was educated at home by devoted private tutors who were also students at Frankfurt's Goethe House. Goethe received training in all the standard topics of the time, but he had a particular passion for languages. He was proficient in Greek, French, and Italian by the time he was 17 years old, and he also had a solid grasp of Latin and Hebrew.
Johann Caspar Goethe once a year invited the best puppeteers in Frankfurt to stage shows for his son in the Goethe family mansion. In his second book, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, which was published in 1796, Johann captures these memorable occurrences.
Schopenhauer has cited Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship as one of the four greatest novels ever written, along with Tristram Shandy, La Nouvelle Héloïse, and Don Quixote. Nietzsche writes, "Four pairs did not refuse my sacrifice: Epicurus and Montaigne, Goethe and Spinoza, Plato and Rousseau, Pascal and Schopenhauer. With these, I must accept when I have long wandered alone; they can call me right and wrong; to them, I will listen when in the process they call each other right and wrong".
