Seduced by the world of the theatre and taking upon himself the grand aspiration of becoming a successful performer and dramatist, the merchant's son Wilhelm Meister embarks on a tumultuous quest of self-fulfilment, in which he finds himself having to negotiate love, ambition and the need to accommodate freedom with the constraints of society. As he faces the obstacles on his way and encounters many remarkable characters, his objectives gradually widen from personal education and development to the betterment of society as a whole. A landmark in the history of European literature, Goethe's novel in two parts - Wilhelm Meister's Years of Apprenticeship and Wilhelm Meister's Years of Travel - is not only one of the key works of Weimar Classicism and a prototype for the Bildungsroman genre, but also a timeless tale of coming into one's own and a fascinating portrayal of the transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century.