Gotthold Ephraim Lessing His Life, Works, and Thought

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) is the foremost literary figure of the German Enlightenment. He is the founder of modern German literature, who urged his compatriots to look to Shakespeare and other English writers rather than France for inspiration. He was also a brilliant controversialist, and his thoughts on philosophy and religion, which challenged many traditional assumptions, gave rise to intense polemics. This book is the first comprehensiveaccount of Lessing's life, work, and thought for over a century. It contains numerous new new insights, and its German edition, published in 2008, was awarded two literary prizes. In keeping with Lessing'sown cosmopolitanism, it presents him in the intellectual, social, and cultural context of eighteenth-century Europe and now makes his achievement fully accessible to English-speaking readers.