Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Stella [Stella]

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When the Berlin publisher August Mylius agreed to pay an advance for the young Goethe's morally unconventional drama Stella - agreed to buy a pig in a poke, as he put it - he did so, as he wrote to Johann Heinrich Merck on 24 October 1775, not because he expected a profit from “such a slight piece” but “mainly in order to make the acquaintance of this admittedly extraordinary genius.”

Stella, which appeared in Berlin book stores in January 1776, has been called a “companion piece” to The Sufferings of Young Werther, published in 1774, except that the love triangle is turned around: one man between two women this time. In Stella, the play's eponymous heroine is about to take into h…

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Citation: Dye, Ellis. "Stella". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 February 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21839, accessed 28 March 2024.]

21839 Stella 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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