Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), now chiefly remembered for his poetry, above all the long work Faust, was a German polymath who published fiction, drama, philosophy, travel essays, and scientific works in his lifetime, as well as verse. One of the principal figures of the Romantic movement, he is a towering figure in German letters, and one of the most influential thinkers of the modern era.

John Kent (b. 1936) taught German, French and Russian in secondary schools for three decades, as well as starring in regional theatre productions and assisting disabled students at the University of Chichester. He has been working on the translations collected here in his spare time since some point in the 1950s.