Two works of the greatest importance works occupied him at this time. One is the novel "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre". This is an example of what is called in German a “Bildungsroman” which means something like “Education novel”. It means a novel which shows a person growing up and developing his character and learning about the world. This book was a very important influence on the 19th century Romantic novel and on all German autobiographical novels ever since. Goethe spent many years working on this book.