Funny to see this on HN - I recently stumbled across the book mentioned in the article trying to find a good English translation of Wilhelm Meister. The Essential Goethe is the only good English translation of Wilhelm Meister, Egmont, and Iphigenia that I have found, and they are all worth reading. That it includes Faust and Werther is almost a shame as both of those are widely available in English. The Essential Goethe is basically a selection from a much larger (12 volume) Princeton translation, and I wish they had included more of the lesser known fiction works (and less of his science essays). In any case, I highly recommend it - Goethe is definitely underappreciated in the US.