Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $38.00

Buy for $38.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship - Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre was the original German title - was Goethe’s second novel, published 1795-6, almost two decades after The Sorrows of Young Werther. It again focuses on a young man but this time on his growing understanding and maturity as he makes his way in the world. As such, it is regarded as the founding work in the ‘coming of age’ genre: the ‘bildungsroman’ ( a term actually coined some 30 years later), which characterised a philosophical novel tracing the cultural, emotional and educational development of an individual from youth to adulthood.

Disdaining to follow his father’s advice to pursue a bourgeois life in business and disappointed in love, Wilhelm Meister searches for a more fulfilling path - and is initially drawn to the arts.

He becomes involved in a theatre troupe, the works of Shakespeare and specifically Hamlet beckon. But his artistic life is interrupted when mundane brutality in the form of an attack by bandits intrudes. Wilhelm, despite being wounded, survives the encounter, which leads him to another level of understanding, and his personal journey to maturity continues.

The novel was hugely influential throughout the 19th century and beyond and remains a key work in classic European literature. Thomas Carlyle’s admired but slightly archaic translation has been lightly revised for this recording which features a sensitive reading by Leighton Pugh.

Public Domain (P)2020 Ukemi Productions Ltd
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The ending

The book is a slough to get through, pace yourself. It has everything: drama, intrigue, romance.
I came here after reading Schopenhauer, you dont have to. In fact, a lot of the lessons I was looking for were in the last book.
I havent meet anyone that read this, that didnt know exactly why they picked it up.
I'm seriously considering buying a paperback, just so i have something to share.
I cried, so reader beware.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A delightful few days

While the world is falling apart all around me, I was able to escape to a different world quite easily with this remarkable accomplishment. Schopenhauer called it one of the greatest of all novels...and now I understand why. It deviates ever so slightly from the Carlyle translation, modernizing it mostly. "Woman" instead of ""damsel" and "You" for "thou".

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!