"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is so famous his servant auctions off snippets of his hair and children and adults recite from his many works by memory. When he was a young poet, his first novel, a story of love and romantic fervor ending in suicide, was an international blockbuster that set off a wave of self-inflicted deaths across Europe. Now seventy-three, sought after and busy with scientific pursuits and responsibilities to the Grand Duke, he has...

In a retelling of the Faust legend, readers follow the story of young Johann Georg Gerlach as he travels throughout the German empire in the late 15th century and eventually becomes the great Doctor Johann Georg Faustus, magician and scholar, but a mystery surrounding Faustus's birth and his first mentor's secret society eventually comes back to haunt him.

In 1772 Germany, the young and tumultuous Johann Goethe aspires to be a poet. After failing his law exams, he is sent by his father to a sleepy provincial court to mend his ways. Unsure of his talent and eager to prove himself, Goethe soon wins the praise and friendship of his superior, Kestner. But then Lotte Buff enters his life and nothing is the same as before. However, the young lovers are unaware that her father has already promised Lotte's...