The Sorrows of Young Werther

I read this story because I have tickets to see "Werther" the opera by Massent. In the opera Charlotte attends him at his death. By today's standards he seems so shallow. I wonder what a psychiatrist would make of him.

I do understand that there are different translations. I haven't read others. This one is perfectly expressed, as far as I am concerned. I have read several translations of Madam Bovary, and I may eventually read other translations of this.

my awesome freind recommended me this book and i fell in love!! really!
it's really flowery and nice and it will get you crying (it got me to cry hahaha)
just try it! it's short and gets to the point! this is a great book!
i loved reading it......and i dont like to read -__-" but it was great!!! so get it and read it!! **

When I head that The Sorrows of Young Werther was one of Alain de Botton favorite book I had to put it on my reading list. Now that I have finally found time to read it I can recommend it most highly. It was a vivid reading experience and I can see why it was a phenomenon when it was first published. It also counted itself as the most pirated book of the time.

This book served its purpose; I enjoyed reading it. However, I ordered the wrong edition for my purposes, but that was my fault. Perhaps be a little more clear on who the translator is for the book, especially for books with many different translations.

So I've never read a classic before so I thought this short novel that supposedly had a big impact back in the day would be a good choice.

Honestly speaking, I didn't enjoy it much. I couldn't wait to get done with it really, so that I could move on to the next book. The book does make you think though. The author uses some exaggerations to make his points. Werther is quite depressed about the woman he cannot get for a good portion of the novel; very well expressed by the way. The man is upset a lot, and I also thought he was a little pompous(but I could be misinterpreting).
The best part of the novel are certain discussions and some behaviours/reactions/thoughts of the characters which I felt was plain, honest and something I could relate to. Discussions of suicide, about bad tempers, and...hmm yea that's all I can remember - are good too. There isn't much of a plot and like someone else mentioned we don't know much about any of the characters.

I might actually re-read this sometime in the future...just to see if I get anything more out of it or even enjoy it...
Its just 88 pages so why not give it a read, huh? :-)

This version is written as if the original were translated to Japanese, and then that Japanese was translated to English. It is horrible. Comparing it side by side with better editions (Penguin Classics) you can see all the mistakes that were made.

Werther affirms the suicide. Albert denies the suicide. I am interesting in their discussion . Werther is in love in Lotte. Albert is fiancé of Lotte. In consequence a catastrophe was anticipated from the beginning.
But I hear that the suicide is denied in Christianity.
After all the word of god in this novel is Spinoza philosophy’s god, isn’t it?
I feel god of the pantheism that nature is god .
Werther seems to think that it is natural to suicide when a human being fall into a predicament,.
In Japan, as for the samurai, Harakiri was required in old days when it rose in the worst predicament.
Suicide becomes the great problem in present Japan.
This is because there are nearly 30,000 people a year.
But, in the case of present Japan, there are many serious economic problems.
The main topic of this novel is the suicide by the troubles of pure love.
Pantheism and the suicide.
I have a feeling that Werther has the impulse that he wants to die and be buried in beautiful Nature . In Japan the famous poet of Saigyou-houshi said that he wants to die in the beautiful cherry blossom.
I quote only a sentence of Goethe thought to be the pantheism.
【 Once from the rocks and across the river and as far as those hills I surveyed the valley in its fruit-fulness and saw all things about me budding and welling forth;
And I saw those mountains clad from top to toe in dense tall trees and those valleys shaded in their manifold wanderings by the loveliest woods and the gentle river gliding through the whispering reeds and on its surface the mirrorings of my beloved clouds that are wafted across the heavens by the soft evening breeze; and I heard the birds around me bringing the wood to life and the gnats danced gleefully in millions in the last red beams of the sun whose final glances lifted the humming beetle from out of the grass; and by all the whirring and weaving around me I was alerted to the ground and to the moss that wrests its nourishment from the hard rock, and the hearth growing down the dry sand slopes opened to me the holy fires of the inner life of Nature: how I took all that into my warm heart ,felt myself made like a god in the overflowing fullness, and the figures of the world without end moved in my soul in splendor, giving life to all things.]

Not a huge fan of this book. I just couldn't get into it and as a fan of all things fantasy I was disappointed. I think it was the writing style that wasn't really my cup of tea. Overly descriptive, too much exposition etc.

The idea of the sensitive young man whose soul is too 'beautiful' and too 'pure' for this world is a literary trope that, honestly, is pretty darn eye-rolling to this jaded reader as he approaches 30. But this is also one of the books that did the most to help inaugurate that trope in the first place.

This is a short, easy read and working through it makes you realize how fundamentally prevalent this kind of character is in so much subsequent literature in one form or another. George Eliot? Jack Kearoac? Henry Miller? Herman Melville? Frederich Nietzsche? Basically ALL Russian and French literature from the 19th century? They all owe a huge debt to the emotionally unstable, love-besotted fool Goethe developed here, and which has become so much a part of our culture that we forget someone had to create the idea in the first place for us to even scoff at it

Werther is the most unlikable man. This is NOT a tragic love story. This is the story of a psychopathic stalker who is obsessed over a woman he can't have so he wants to kill everyone around her! When a peasant man who is obsessed over a woman who he can't have (just like Werther is) ends up killing the women he can't have, Werther defends the man! It shows that Werther is exactly like the man! Toward the end of the book, he confirms this as he disclosed he had considered in his mind to kill Charlotte (the object of his obsession), her husband and himself! Instead, he ends up just killing himself - glad this selfish scumbag was out of their lives. His diary entries reveal a deeply sick and selfish individual, obsessed to the extreme. His mind is that of a psychopath stalker obsessed with his prey! Nothing at all to applaud about this guy. Albert and Charlotte at least demonstrate themselves to be virtuous and true friends to this selfish psychopath who continuously tries to lure the wife away from her husband, his own friend. Werther is the scumbag best friend who tries to steal your wife behind you back and then plots to kill you all because she corrects him and refuses his advances! Ewwwww!!!

Johanne Wolfgang von Goethe is one of the giants of German literature. He lived between 1749 and 1832. His influence on numerous writers was significant. His most famous work is Faust, which was first published in 1808, with an operatic version produced in 1814. It has been an essential part of the repertoire of many an opera company ever since. It is also a most useful metaphor for many of the dilemmas of life: making a deal with the "devil" for short-term gratification. The "Sorrows of Young Werther" was first published in 1774. It was Goethe's first novel, and was widely acclaimed, an early "best seller."

The actual novella is only a hundred pages; thus publishers tend to provide additional material to "fill out" their offering. The version that I read was published in 1982, by "Signet Classic," translated by Catherine Hutter, and with a forward by Hermann Weigand. Included in this publication is a 20 page work entitled "Reflections on Werther" which I found of much value, as Goethe explained the themes of his novella, as well as his concept of the German word "Dichtang" which he uses to mean "revelation of higher truths." I also enjoyed "Goethe in Sesenheim" which underscored his admiration for Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield (Annotated). (Note: when I first read Goldsmith's work, some 45 years ago, I felt it was rather "pollyannish" since everything turned out wonderful in the end: the proverbial "happy ending" that good teachers of literature warn us is NOT good literature. Goethe admiration for the work has placed it on my re-read list.) The last two works I found a much lesser value. They are "The New Melusina" which is a tale involving German folk myths concerning the small people who were the original creation: pixies. The last work, "The Fairy Tale," I had difficulty finishing.

As for "Sorrows", it involves a young man's infatuation with a charming woman, Lotte, which turns into a deadly obsession (for him.) A lot of us might have been there in our youths, and this was one of the reasons for its immense popularity when it was first published. It reminded me of W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. As Goethe describes it, ever since Werther's first waltz with Lotte, "heaven and earth have changed places." There is a major rub: Lotte is engaged to another, Albert, and the two of them eventually marry. Albert is depicted as a "very fine chap," who is openly friendly to Werther. But as time goes on, Albert understandably finds Werther's obsession with his wife more than annoying, and he grows much more distant. Lotte also finds it quite irritating, as Werther cannot "move on," and find another, as so many of us have done. In the "Reflections" Goethe notes that after publication, numerous women became "obsessed" with the idea that they were the one upon whom "Lotte" was modeled. Goethe states that his character is a composite of several women.

In addition to the central theme, there are the incidentals of life in the latter part of 18th century Germany. An educated man like Werther is enthralled with the Greek classics, and normally carries around a copy of the works of Homer. Being of a certain class, he does not appear to have to work, and his one brief fling into a field in which he receives some remuneration ends fairly quickly. And there is that admiration for the joys of the natural world, taking pleasure in eating the peas and cabbage that one has grown, much of which can still be observed in the Europe of today.

Unlike "Wakefield," there is no happy ending, contrived or otherwise, and the one that is provided could edge towards the melodramatic. Still, overall, 5-stars, for a valuable historical novel that has influenced many other writers (and readers).

I found this book on my friend's bookshelf. He read it in college. He warned me that it might be a tough book because it is about a difficult, narcissistic and moody teenager. Another friend chimed in and told me not to bother to read it. It was hard to get into it initially until I read the sentence: "Anyone can know what I know. My heart alone is my own." How refreshing! What a marvelous understanding of identity and individuality. There is the line: "I am contented and happy, and therefore not a good historian.“ How intelligent! And then there is this: "People of a certain rank will always keep a cool distance from common people, as if they were afraid to lose their dignity by too much familiarity" What keen understanding of human nature! I would like to read his other works, especially Faust. Goethe was inimitable. He had a fertile, active mind. He was the German Jacob who wrestled with the Angel. How heroic!

This book can be read and evaluated in at least three ways. You can pick it up in a bookstore, as you would any other fiction, for entertainment. Or, if you have some familiarity with Goethe, you can compare it with his later works. Or you can take an even broader perspective and consider its significance in German literature.

Forbidden or impossible love is a literary staple. The genre includes, for example, Balzac's The Lily of The Valley, written 50 years after Werther, in which the hero, Felix, not only does not kill himself, but reappears in further Balzac novels. It even includes country songs like Hank Williams"'s "Wedding Bells." Frankly, in this lot, Werther is not the greatest page turner. The ending has been spoiled for two centuries, so you do not spend much time wondering about it. At some points, I actually caught myself urging the hero to just stop announcing his intention and get on with it.

Yet Werther's descent into mad love is vividly described. His obsession with the unavailable Lotte makes him lose jobs and social connections, and act rashly with the people he encounters. But almost every man past 30 has felt at least a mild form of the pangs that kill Werther and is reminded of his own past, foolish self, only expressed much more evocatively than he ever could have.

While not an expert on Goethe, I have read another novel by him entitled Elective Affinities that he wrote 35 years after Werther. It is also a love story but of a different kind, longer, and dramatically better constructed than Werther. It portrays two middle-aged people who marry for love decades after having been prevented from doing so, and it does not play out as they had hoped.

We really cannot fully appreciate these stories outside of their historical context. In Europe and North America today, the love marriage is the norm; in 18th century Europe, it wasn't. Parents arranged marriages for their children and had unimaginable powers of coercion. In France, for example, a father could have a 25-year old son imprisoned for disobeying. Much of the theater and literature of the 17th and 18th century is about a father who wants to marry off a daughter to a wealthy, old suitor while she is in love with a poor but attractive young man. If it's a comedy, love triumphs and they live happily ever after. This pattern is found in many Molière plays, but Jane Austen's novels, with female protagonists and scheming mothers, are similar.

But Goethe is having none of this happy ending stuff. Werther does not get Lotte, even though we find out in the end that his feelings are returned. In Elective Affinities, love wins after decades, but does not make the heroes happy. Our divorce rate tells us unambiguously that love marriages do not always work, but 19th-century European literature seems to be discovering it, with Goethe as the first to write about it.

In Germany, Goethe is not just any writer. The government-funded schools that teach German throughout the world are called "Goethe Institute." But I don't know any German who actually enjoys reading him. They have been force-fed his works in school, and are happy to leave them on the shelf afterwards. But they are there for non-Germans to enjoy while ignoring the classics of their own cultures.

Every European language transitioned at one point from a vernacular to a vehicle for literary and scientific expression, and Werther was published just as it was happening to German. Italian went first, in the 1400s, followed 100 years later by French and English, but it didn't happen for German until the late 1700s, and Goethe was, after Lessing, among the first authors to use it. In every country, this transition slowed down the evolution of the language -- almost froze it -- with the result that today's native speakers can still understand Shakespeare's English, Molière's French, and Goethe's German, but not anything older. These centuries-old books have no word for cell phone and styles have evolved, but, otherwise, the grammar and the spelling have barely budged. German is my second language, but I find Goethe no harder to read than the recently deceased Günter Grass.

The works that founded a national literature are, in fact, often easier to read than later ones, because they are free of references that you miss unless you have read many others. This is not completely true of Werther, because, the night before he kills himself, he reads aloud to Lotte his own translation of a contemporary Scottish poem that I couldn't help but skip over. The book would have been better without it.

Lacan's philosophy was that we must have fantasies that are unattainable because once they are attained they are no longer fantasies. The "object petit a" is the phrase that embodies this idea and Werther is the Goethe character that seems to embody it ever-so-perfectly. He desires something he cannot have, the love and affection of a woman named Lotte who is at first promised to another and then married to him. The intricacies of the story, told through Werther's perspective and his letters to, mostly, his friend Wilhelm is immense! He would like to hate Lotte's husband, but he can't. At least, not initially, since he is an amiable character with whom Werther enjoys spending his company. But after time, the rot and disease Werther experiences of repressed love makes him dislike Lotte's husband. Throughout the story, other incidents of love gone awry (normally into obsession) is boldly faced. Rape, death, murder, suicide, they are all proposed to Werther through circumstances of another. But, as the story goes, he is on an express train to suicide.

This is one of the first works of literature that focus on suicide, and Goethe did not go unscathed because of it. In a highly religious society, it was looked down upon to commit such a selfish act of taking the life God has given you. The book seemed, to some, to praise the art of suicide as the only answer to some unanswerable circumstances in life, the ones that fill you up and keep you from living properly. Quite the contrary, it was supposed to evoke a sense of disdain for it and pity for those who follow in Werther's footsteps. Unfortunately, those that felt the same as young Werther did, sometimes, follow and Goethe was scalded for it.

The book is based quite readily on Goethe's life as an academic and also the life of a fellow peer named Jerusalem who did, in fact, take his life with a pistol shot to the head after he was denied his life's love. Although Goethe had not followed Jerusalem's ideal, he was fascinated and curious about the concept of being so absorbed, so obsessed, and so in love to take one's life if one could not have what they so desperately craved. It's a throw back to the Shakespearean tragedy, but with a German Romantic twist.

I could have the happiest life if I were not a fool.
Goethe's first prose hit, in 1774, when he was 25 years old. A tragic love story, based on two real life components: Goethe's own infatuation with a woman who was not free, and a friend's suicide. Young Werther became a role model for love sick young men. Suicide became fashionable.
Goethe was really not a romantic at all, and the romanticism of his bestseller is better described as sentimentalism. At the time of publication, the word `romantic' was not much used. In German it was obviously derived from Roman = novel. Goethe uses the word twice in this 120 pages text.

I picked it up from my shelf because I had stumbled over Werther in Anna Karenina, which I just read and reviewed. Upon revisiting I found that the circumstances and background of this novella are in a way as interesting as the plot itself.
Most of the story is told in letters from the young man to a friend. He has come for some business purpose to a town in the country. The town is not much praised, but the surrounding country side is raved about. We know from Goethe's life that he met the Lotte of the novel near Wetzlar, a nice small town north of Frankfurt, on the river Lahn.

They meet at a ball, and though he knows upfront that she is engaged, he falls for her. They find affinities in dance and in talk about music and literature (Goldsmith, Klopstock). As long as fiancé Albert is absent, W sees Lotte every day. W's sufferings begin gradually when Albert returns from his errands. He makes friends with Albert, but that doesn't make things easier. W is quite aware that his behavior is stupid, but he can't help it.
Werther starts arguing with Albert about suicide. W defends it and compares it to death from a disease. He becomes more and more morbid. His enthusiasm for nature flows into contemplation of death as a purpose of life.
More and more W resents Albert, denies his right to `possess' Lotte.
W gets restless: he cannot do nothing, but there is nothing he can do. He has trapped himself. He becomes self-destructive: he tries to injure himself in ordinary activities, like his walks in the woods.
Then he pulls himself away, takes a job in a diplomatic mission. His heart is not in it. As a commoner he resents the aristocratic rejection that he experiences in the narrow-mindedness of the residence. He hates the work and his boss. Even this takes him near suicide. The man was born for it.
Then he starts writing to Lotte. She lets Albert answer. W quits his job to be near her again. Things seem to have gone from bad to worse. Aspects of the paradisiacal idyll that he saw earlier have turned sour.

Then, in my eyes unnecessarily, an `editor' begins to summarize further events, as part 3. I my humble opinion, this part 3 should have been shrunk to very few pages. Dragging the end out to lengths does nobody any good. Worst of all, we are treated to 'endless' translations of Ossian text, which was fashionable at the time, but gives me little pleasure now.
I see it as a weakness in structure and should deduct a star.
But how can I do that? That would be sacrilege!
P.S. after due consideration I have decided to adjust my star count to my text.

Werther was an important and influential novel of the Sturm und Drang period. Goethe was 26 when he wrote it. It was his first novel and brought him instant fame. It is something of a young person's novel, overbrimming with emotional drama. In later life, Goethe distanced himself from it somewhat.

I found the early part too overheated for my taste (a bit too much of a Sturm in a teacup) but Werther's obsessive passion becomes more authentic and compelling later in the story. And, some way through the book, there are very fine descriptive passages. The ending is extraordinary - dark, dramatic, disturbing. It is difficult now to understand the impact the novel had at the time, as it was so perfectly suited to the zeitgeist, so different from our own.

I read the Modern Library Classics edition, translated and introduced by Burton Pike. I have not read other editions, so cannot compare them, but I can tell you that this one is excellent. Werther presents a particular challenge to the English translator, because it includes a sizeable extract from The Songs of Ossian, by James Macpherson, translated into German. So does the translator attempt a translation of Goethe's German version, which is rather more passionate and free-flowing than the original, or is it better to simply revert to the original English version? Pike chooses the latter course, wisely in my opinion, and adds an explanatory footnote. He also discusses the issue in the Introduction.

If you want to get to know Goethe's work (and if you enjoy good literature, you should) then this first novel is a logical place to start, but be assured that his more mature work is far better.
[PeterReeve]

In Goethe's time, he was quite the star. Previously the world had idolized playwrights such as Shakespeare and respected authors long dead (like Homer); but it was Goethe who penned The Sorrows of Young Werther and was propelled into the spotlight. I did venture into this book with some trepidation, figuring that many of the most revered old novels tend to be... well... old. But instead I found a richly told and heartbreaking tale of love and loss.

What I found most striking about this work is the similarity to the upcoming work (in that time) of Franz Kafka. Something about those central European writers around this time that draws me in. But like Kafka, his protagonist isn't exactly Johnny Awesome. He is frail and fraught with insecurity, sadness, and even embarrassment. He is human and as such is fallible, and often held prisoner by his emotions.

Without giving away too much, this story really focuses on Werther's journey as a human being and his longing for an unavailable love. The story is written in a series of letters or diary entries (if you will). This style gives great weight to the internal emotions and struggles of young Werther.

This is one story that I am very glad I read. It lays a great foundation for much of the upcoming fiction of the central European states until the 20th century. It is a quick read. And just dive into it ready to just accept the mopey protagonist and his pining. It's very difficult to pin this book into a particular style, but it definitely is not romance or melodrama. Just great fiction about a pained individual.

I have the Modern Library edition, and it is a fantastic version.

I never read this book and decided I finally had to since it's so monumental. It's so boring. I couldn't finish reading it. One of those things that was so important for its time and place but somehow just doesn't grab the modern reader. I'm so glad they never forced me to read this or Proust in school. I would have died.

I feel like this book is the first emo album, the beginning of youth culture, the precursor to Schopenhauer & Nietzsche. All the art I enjoy finds a predecessor in The Sorrows of Young Werther. It is tragedy without the chorus, subjective and thus distinctively modern. A world without any security or guarantee of social status for those who do not please the accepted ways. One where women have gained power over men, but where men haven't been able to accept it. Our newfound freedom and accompanying alienation tries to be channeled through marriage and career, to find the socially acceptable good natured partner. A world which has been built on renunciation of instinct, but still hasn't found productive outlets. A world with one step in the past and another in the present. Where the morally disposed of the privileged class fear those beneath them. Where ignorance is bliss, knowledge is without assurance of truth. Those on top have a vision of the future, but it is one where they are not as necessary.

This is a book on the end of the old ways as it enters the modern era where it's presuppositions are under the assault of uncertainty. This book may become a relic as those who truly share the sorrows of young Werther may dwindle. The sorrow depicted is of a very particular kind, of a particular society.

None of what I have said condemns this book. To the contrary this book is essential for human understanding. But it is so disturbing that we should aim for a society which doesn't have so many Werthers. Let the Sorrows of Young Werther disturb and challenge us! We shouldn't like this book, and that is why we need it.

This book is for a world hopefully in the birth pangs of a new era, of a collapse of the old and the prospect of something new. Let this story inspire us, even as we identify with its tragic logic.

I went into this book knowing virtually nothing about it. I remembered a vague reference to it from reading Frankenstein last year (the monster discovers and reads this book and relates strongly to Werther) but beyond that, and the general "sorrow" of the central character, I hopped in blind.

The book is written in epistolary style with each letter being sent from Werther to his friend Wilhelm (a couple of the letters seemed addressed to his brother as well?). We never read any responses written to Werther but can sometimes infer the reactions from Wilhelm. Still, the core of the story is told in Werther's letters themselves.

Because of the epistolary style, the narrative is a little 'jumpy' as it skips over time in between letters...sometimes a day or two, sometimes weeks or more. Some of the letters are very lengthy and pour out large segments of plot and action. Others are very short segments of exclamation or emotion. Sometimes even the longer letters don't advance the "plot" so much as provide insight into the thoughts and emotions of Werther.

Through the letters, we follow Werther as he moves to the country and encounters a young girl named Lotte. He is immediately transfixed by her and professes undying love. She coyly allows his advances and it seems as though a romance may appear between them. Quickly we learn that Lotte is betrothed to another man named Albert. Werther is taken aback by this, but still persists in being close to Lotte with the hope of perhaps persuading her to love him. When the time comes, Lotte does marry Albert, much to Werther's dismay, but the three of them remain friendly. Werther visits them frequently and seems to hover incessantly over Lotte. He grows more and more jealous of Albert, which creates some tension in the group and Albert begins to leave the room when Werther comes to visit.

Werther's obsession with Lotte grows more and more intense as time goes on. He battles with himself over the emotions he feels and writes his friend for advice, although it is very clear that Werther does not feel able to (nor does he desire to) make a break from Lotte and strive to love another. He does finally move away from Lotte and spends some time trying to move on with his life. He becomes more and more discontent in his work and more and more obsessed with returning to her.

He finally does move back to live by them again. Albert is more offstandish and put off by Werther's presence. Werther continues to be insistent in his own mind (and sometimes to Lotte or Wilhelm) that there must be a way for her to love him. At the same time, he is emotionally conflicted because he knows she "belongs" to another man and he does not feel it is right to try and take her from him. She eventually tells Werther that he needs to stop coming around so often (he'd been visiting almost daily) but says that he's still a friend and should come by for Christmas as she's made him a gift.

__*** SPOILER ***__

Shortly after (the day after) Lotte tells Werther to back off a bit, he finds Lotte alone one night and again professes his love and pushes on her and kisses her passionately. She forces him off and tells him how wrong he's behaving. He's again in turmoil but does leave, though he announces (somewhat veiled) that she won't see him again...ever. He returns home and writes a few more notes in preparation of his suicide. He sends a note to Lotte and Albert to borrow their pistols for "a trip he's taking." Lotte realizes what's going on, but sends the pistols anyway. He shoots himself in the middle of the night and dies the next morning. He's buried without clergy, graveyard or cemetery.

__*** END SPOILER ***__

The presentation of love versus obsession is very interesting here and is very well done. You get a very good sense of the turmoil that Werther's going through...of the pain he's feeling as well as the desire he has but cannot fulfill. After reading the book, I looked up some info on it and found that it is actually fairly autobiographical. Apparently Goethe fell in love with his own Lotte who refused him and married another. He was obsessed for some time and found it hard to work or concentrate. There was a quote I read where Goethe indicates that he actually used Werther (and particularly the ending) to save himself [Goethe].

The story itself is intriguing though not particularly entrancing. It's really the presentation of the mental anguish of Werther that makes this noteworthy to me. Getting into his head and participating in the psychology of obsessive love was really interesting. A lot of his language was actually very romantic and, had it been spent on someone more receptive, could have been very powerful in enhancing a romantic relationship. Parts of the read were a bit slow, but overall, it was a good read.

****
4.5 out of 5 stars

Famous as a classic of German romanticism, The Sorrows of Young Werther seems overheated with the idealized passion of the supposed author for the unattainable Charlotte. Most of the novel is in the form of letters to his dear friend Wilhelm, as the sensitive young painter suffers through the throes of unrequited love and hypersensitivity to everything in his world--the young children, the "charming" peasants, the dramatic landscapes...However, if the reader considers all the art that arose from this romantic genre, including the darker but no less dramatic heroes of the Brontes, Werther becomes interesting for setting the the style. Worth reading for its place in literary history. But I was glad it was not too long--I couldn't last for many more pages of heartrending protestations of true love.

Currently I'm taking a class in German, as is being taught by a professor from Germany. When pressed on what sorts of things might be a good read from the German catalogue, she pointed me towards the likes of Thomas Mann.

Fortunately for me I'm bad with names. I went to the bookstore in search of something to read (because I would like to know more about Germany) but I couldn't remember any of the authors she told me to check out. The only name I could remember was Goethe and his only work that I was familiar with was, of course, Faust. One more happy circumstance (that they were out of that story) put me in possession of this edition of 'Werther'. Again, I am a fortunate man.

This is a terrific little book. I am told that it caused a storm of praise and a sort of cult following upon its publication (even a few suicides) and I find that I can truly believe that. It tells the story of unrequited love, of a man who meets a woman who fills all the holes in his heart and life, yet remains estranged from him. The emotions that Werther goes through in pining for his Lotte are real, for they are the same emotions that every other human being has had in shaking anticipation of seeing their 'crush'.

As you read through the short work, you find yourself feeling the initial highs that Werther goes through. Without saying it so succinctly, Werther begins to see green for green and blue for blue for the first time, all augmented by his new appreciation for life through the filter of his beloved. As the story progresses, the emotions grow darker and more foreboding. You can feel the onset of defeat, the slow torture of knowing that even if Lotte became his, his whole life would never be the same for it because the moment of ripeness for the relationship has come and passed. You can feel Werther's non-acceptance of his situation...it lies inside all of our hearts.

The other short pieces in the book are tantalizing tidbits as well. 'The New Melusina' is a quaint tale of a typical man who cannot commit himself to anything but Bacchus. 'The Fairy Tale' reminded me somewhat of a CS Lewis work. The non-fiction pieces are insightful into the way Goethe's mind worked although I found myself wondering if maybe he wasn't trying to tell a tale about his own life in the Sesenheim recounting; it sounded more like wishful thinking than anything else, though I think a historian (or a few minutes research in a library) might settle the matter (sorry- didn't have time to do that for this review).

Bottom line: Buy this book and give it a read. It bears the word 'classic' on the back of it with more justification than some of the other books in that milieu.

-NL

When I found this book on the reading list for my European literature class, and once I'd read a synopsis of the story, I wasn't expecting to like it much. And initially I was a little put off by the protagonist's melodramatic way of expressing himself, but by the time I'd finished the book, my opinion had changed drastically. I don't usually go in for tragedies, but this one is somehow different. "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is the tale of a young man, Werther, who seeks a new life by moving to a pretty country town and immersing himself in the beauties of nature. Once there, however, he meets and falls in love with Lotte, a young woman who happens to be already engaged to another man.

The story is told mainly in the form of a series of letters written by Werther to a close friend, William, whom we never actually meet, and occasionally a few other individuals, including Lotte. Each letter is dated and we see the progression and deterioration of Werther's mental state from infatuation, to love, and then to destructive obsession and despair. Toward the end of the book, shortly before Werther's depression finally drives him to take his own life, the narrative style abruptly switches to third person, allowing us for the first time to see the thoughts and emotions of other characters without having them first filtered through Werther's unreliable perception. And the viewpoints of those around Werther give us critical insight into the manifestations of his mental state.

Over the years this book has sparked much concern as to whether it advocates suicide in cases of unrequited love. And indeed there have been cases where individuals were motivated to take their own lives after reading this story. However, those who draw such a message from "The Sorrows of Young Werther" are, I believe, misinterpreting the work. Though the protagonist does indeed commit suicide, his act is not glorified (just look at the pitiful way in which his death is described) and nowhere does Goethe make any commentary on whether suicide is right or wrong in such a situation. In fact, I didn't find anything judgmental in the book at all. Rather, Goethe simply explores the human heart and emotions, presents his findings, and leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Despite being a first novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is beautifully written. Even in translation it is clear that Goethe had a powerful command of the written word. And it is quite plausible to believe that the depth and intensity of emotions expressed in the work are a result of Goethe's own experiences with unsuccessful romances. If you go on to read anything about Goethe's own life, you'll see that there are many parallels to be found with Werther's story.

"The Sorrows of Young Werther" really gives readers a lot to think about. Goethe's insights into human emotion are right on the mark, and he expresses them in haunting and moving language. While many modern readers will balk at Werther's extreme romanticism, it is really only his outward expression of emotion that is so alien to us. Once you get past this and delve into the actual feelings beneath, most readers will realize that they can identify with Werther in many ways. Nearly all of us has been in a similar romantic situation, longing for someone we will never have, and Goethe offers a wealth of material for us to contemplate in analyzing our own emotions. Any thoughtful reader will find much to appreciate here.

This review refers to the 1962 Signet Classics printing, translated by Catherine Hutter.

Famous as a classic of German romanticism, The Sorrows of Young Werther seems overheated with the idealized passion of the supposed author for the unattainable Charlotte. Most of the novel is in the form of letters to his dear friend Wilhelm, as the sensitive young painter suffers through the throes of unrequited love and hypersensitivity to everything in his world--the young children, the "charming" peasants, the dramatic landscapes...However, if the reader considers all the art that arose from this romantic genre, including the darker but no less dramatic heroes of the Brontes, Werther becomes interesting for setting the the style. Worth reading for its place in literary history. But I was glad it was not too long--I couldn't last for many more pages of heartrending protestations of true love.

Currently I'm taking a class in German, as is being taught by a professor from Germany. When pressed on what sorts of things might be a good read from the German catalogue, she pointed me towards the likes of Thomas Mann.

Fortunately for me I'm bad with names. I went to the bookstore in search of something to read (because I would like to know more about Germany) but I couldn't remember any of the authors she told me to check out. The only name I could remember was Goethe and his only work that I was familiar with was, of course, Faust. One more happy circumstance (that they were out of that story) put me in possession of this edition of 'Werther'. Again, I am a fortunate man.

This is a terrific little book. I am told that it caused a storm of praise and a sort of cult following upon its publication (even a few suicides) and I find that I can truly believe that. It tells the story of unrequited love, of a man who meets a woman who fills all the holes in his heart and life, yet remains estranged from him. The emotions that Werther goes through in pining for his Lotte are real, for they are the same emotions that every other human being has had in shaking anticipation of seeing their 'crush'.

As you read through the short work, you find yourself feeling the initial highs that Werther goes through. Without saying it so succinctly, Werther begins to see green for green and blue for blue for the first time, all augmented by his new appreciation for life through the filter of his beloved. As the story progresses, the emotions grow darker and more foreboding. You can feel the onset of defeat, the slow torture of knowing that even if Lotte became his, his whole life would never be the same for it because the moment of ripeness for the relationship has come and passed. You can feel Werther's non-acceptance of his situation...it lies inside all of our hearts.

The other short pieces in the book are tantalizing tidbits as well. 'The New Melusina' is a quaint tale of a typical man who cannot commit himself to anything but Bacchus. 'The Fairy Tale' reminded me somewhat of a CS Lewis work. The non-fiction pieces are insightful into the way Goethe's mind worked although I found myself wondering if maybe he wasn't trying to tell a tale about his own life in the Sesenheim recounting; it sounded more like wishful thinking than anything else, though I think a historian (or a few minutes research in a library) might settle the matter (sorry- didn't have time to do that for this review).

Bottom line: Buy this book and give it a read. It bears the word 'classic' on the back of it with more justification than some of the other books in that milieu.

-NL

When I found this book on the reading list for my European literature class, and once I'd read a synopsis of the story, I wasn't expecting to like it much. And initially I was a little put off by the protagonist's melodramatic way of expressing himself, but by the time I'd finished the book, my opinion had changed drastically. I don't usually go in for tragedies, but this one is somehow different. "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is the tale of a young man, Werther, who seeks a new life by moving to a pretty country town and immersing himself in the beauties of nature. Once there, however, he meets and falls in love with Lotte, a young woman who happens to be already engaged to another man. Werther initially befriends the couple, but as the tension in this hopeless love triangle increases, so does Werther's depression deepen.

The story is told mainly in the form of a series of letters written by Werther to a close friend, William, whom we never actually meet, and occasionally a few other individuals, including Lotte. Each letter is dated and we see the progression and deterioration of Werther's mental state from infatuation, to love, and then to destructive obsession and despair. Toward the end of the book, shortly before Werther's depression finally drives him to take his own life, the narrative style abruptly switches to third person, allowing us for the first time to see the thoughts and emotions of other characters without having them first filtered through Werther's unreliable perception. And the viewpoints of those around Werther give us critical insight into the manifestations of his mental state.

Over the years this book has sparked much concern as to whether it advocates suicide in cases of unrequited love. And indeed there have been cases where individuals were motivated to take their own lives after reading this story. However, those who draw such a message from "The Sorrows of Young Werther" are, I believe, misinterpreting the work. Though the protagonist does indeed commit suicide, his act is not glorified (just look at the pitiful way in which his death is described) and nowhere does Goethe make any commentary on whether suicide is right or wrong in such a situation. In fact, I didn't find anything judgmental in the book at all. Rather, Goethe simply explores the human heart and emotions, presents his findings, and leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Despite being a first novel for Goethe, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is beautifully written. I cannot compare this particular translation (1962 Signet Classics printing, translated by Catherine Hutter) to the original German text, but even in translation it is clear that Goethe had a powerful command of the written word. And it is quite plausible to believe that the depth and intensity of emotions expressed in the work are a result of Goethe's own experiences with unsuccessful romances. This particular edition also contains an interesting piece entitled "Goethe in Sesenheim" in which he relates one such relationship and in which we can identify many parallels with Werther's story.

This Signet Classics edition also includes two other short stories - "The New Melusina" and "The Fairy Tale." Neither one is, in my opinion, as good as "The Sorrows of Young Werther," but they are interesting to read nonetheless. Both contain the theme of love, making the book as a whole into a nice exploration of this particular emotion. "The Fairy Tale" is a rather strange and rambling tale, the plot of which is difficult to pin down and identify, and I could either take it or leave it. "The New Melusina" is my favorite of the two, and is told from the perspective of a traveling gentleman who enters a relationship with an alluring but mysterious woman he meets at an inn. He later discovers that she is a pixie, and must then choose between joining his love in her own world, or losing her forever.

"The Sorrows of Young Werther," as well as the other pieces in this edition, really does give us a lot to think about. Goethe's insights into human emotion are right on the mark, and he expresses them in haunting and moving language. While many modern readers will balk at Werther's extreme romanticism, it is really only his outward expression of emotion that is so alien to us. Once you get past this and delve into the actual feelings beneath, most readers will realize that they can identify with Werther in many ways. Nearly all of us has been in a similar romantic situation, longing for someone we will never have, and Goethe offers a wealth of material for us to contemplate in analyzing our own emotions. Any thoughtful reader will find much to appreciate here.

In his portrayal of the love sick Werther Gothe left to posterity an unparalleled view of a man's obsession with an unattainable desire leading to his self destruction. This book was immensely popular throughout Europe in it's day and is purported to have caused a rash of suicides across the continent. Werther in his letters to a friend is shown to be struggling with questions of his own mortality and ability to live without satisfaction of his one obsessive desire for the love of a woman who is already taken. He spends his days with the couple and as the intensity of his feelings grows his introspective letters to his friend Wilhelm are reminiscent of Hamlet's manic behavior and reflections on taking one's own life.
This short novel is well worth reading for it's significance in the development of self reflective psychologically prescient literature. It spawned numerous imitators and is an important contribution to world literature. Though short it packs a solid hit on the senses.

Goethe (1749-1832) is the most important of the German writers, a poet who surpassed the constraints of his time, being the brightest representative of German Enlightnement. Faust, his masterwork, portrays the inner struggle of a man who had everything on earth but who was profoundly disillusioned by the rigid limits imposed upon human life and creation, that in the search for the infinite of possibilities, sold his soul to the devil in order to grab with both hands whatever might come from the struggle between Good and Evil. Much of that human fight and quest is anticipated in the "Sorrows of the Young Werther", one of Goethe's first works and his very first romance, and a truly good one. Here the theme of the quest for the infinite and meanings in life is ever present and is beneath all the impossible interplay of Werther (Goethe himself), Lotte ( a feminine Lot, always looking backwards to face doom?) and her nondescript husband Albert.
As in Faust, the protagonist (Werther) had it all with books, and the only one he carries and reads is Homer, where, in his own words, no limits were yet established for human growth and expansion. As in "Romeo and Juliet", his is an impossible love, a human triangle that had to be bisected by a voluntary and violent farewell to his beloved Lotte - and to his life, something he finally accomplishes with the full knowledge of his beloved friend. The romance has a magnetic force upon the reader, who follows attentively the protagonist trough his epistolar via crucis with his friend Wilheim, untill the dramatic end. In my opinion, the romance is directly antipodal to Flaubert's Madame Bovary and as good as Madame Bovary, the latter being an ode of form against substance, the primacy of form against substance, while Goethe's romance is sheer substance (love, hate, etc...) at its height, and, along with Madame Bovary, must be reckoned on the list of the 100 best romances ever written. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

How can anyone, especially a surly bully like me, presume to review one of the great monuments of European literature, one of the most influential pieces of fiction ever written? And what's worse, I didn't read this edition or even this translation! I dug out my forty-year-old German edition to re-read on a trip to Germany. If you can't read German, I strongly suggest looking at other reviews for guidance about the best translation, because this IS a book you ought to read and perhaps re-read, even if you find it mawkish and/or depressing. It's about a supremely narcissitic young puppy who falls foolishly in love with a maiden already pledged to a 'worthy' man; the puppy behaves atrociously and suffers himself into a suicidal depression. It's said the dozens of ardent puppies all over Europe were so enamoured of his romantic grief that the suicide rate rose appreciably.

So be it. Reading Werther again in my 'senescence' is like finding an old love note from a high school crush, a note never actually sent, in a yellowed volume of poetry; it's above all a poignant embarassment. Werther is an insufferable elitist, a shallower trifler than his creator, for which all German literature can be eternally grateful. In other words, if Werther is read as Goethe's self-portrayal, then Herr Goethe still had a lot to learn about himself when he wrote it. What made Werther potent, what makes the book still worth reading, is the 'sensibility' it espoused: the romantic perception of nature expressed in startlingly simple and resonant language; the emphasis on aesthetic affect as the hallmark of the truly deep soul; the commitment to self-realization outside any and all conventions of propriety.

Whether that Goethean revolution of affect was a blessing or a curse to the following generations is far too large a question to trifle with in this picayune reviewing format.

"The Sorrows of Young Werther" reminds me of an aphorism by Norman Panzica, a Canadian marriage counselor: "A man in love is operating at the lowest level of his intellect." Werther's pain ran deep; he was an intelligent young man whose intellectual propensity was an obvious feature of his personality.

Werther realized there were unknown factors at the heart of his misery, and at one point he said, "It is so difficult to discover the true and innermost motives of men who are not of the common run." He consoled himself by saying, "There is nothing quite so pleasing and reassuring as to find an unusual mind in sympathy with our own." In other words, misery loves company. He realized he had no monopoly on knowledge, but he also knew he, like every mortal, was unique. "All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own." Once more he consoled himself as he drew a conclusion applicable to all mortals: "I am a wanderer only, a pilgrim, through the world. But what more are you?"

But what more am I? Werther's question is a challenge that makes his novel come alive for his readers. As I review the eighty years of my life, I too have experienced the futility of becoming attached to "the one and only woman" who would bring me "eternal happiness." Like Werner, I have weathered those times when I was hopelessly in love. Somehow, I always picked a woman who would never marry me, and I imagine this was done at a subconscious level. Indeed, "it is difficult to discover the true and innermost motives of men" whether they're of the common or uncommon run. It makes little difference. We pull these painful tricks on ourselves. We fail consciously to understand what we do to ourselves, but in my case, I believe the thought of marriage terrorized me. Small wonder Werther said, "How rare in this world is understanding!" The tragedy of it is amplified by severe depression that often occurs during those youthful years when men and women should be enjoying the benefits of health, strength and vigor.

Still, there were moments when Werther was blissfully happy. "A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet spring mornings which I enjoy with all my heart," he said. Between this zenith of joy and the nadir of depression existed a wide chasm. At last, he said, "My mind is made up, Charlotte: I am resolved to die!" Werther's suspected bipolar disorder finally drove him to suicide. Goethe's tragic novel was immensely successful; sympathetic readers were committing suicide! The novelist was concerned enough to revise his book with hope that every reader would survive.

Werther was unfair to Charlotte, her husband Albert, and himself. Charlotte's secret love of Werther exacerbated their relationship. Albert's toleration was uncommon; most men would have ordered Werther off the premises right from the beginning. It would be easy to conclude Werner was simply a spoiled brat caught up in the frenzy of romantic love during the romantic period of Europe's cultural history. Conclusions of that sort are simplistic.

Werther was hooked on Homer, but a reading of Homer will assure us that Werther's romantic fixation was known at least three thousand years before Goethe's birth. It continues to this day. It still accounts for an occasional suicide.

Goethe met Charlotte Buff at a ball in Wetzlar, where he arrived looking for a Position/Career after finishing his studies. A friendship developed between Charlotte, Goethe and Christian Kestner (her fiancé), in the summer of 1772. Charlotte was eventually obliged to tell Goethe plainly that he must not expect her to return his love. At seven o'clock on the morning of September 11th Goethe quit the town without warning. Away with friends in Koblencz, Goethe heard of the suicide of his former acquaintance at Wetzlar, Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem. In September 1771 Jerusalem had taken a job in Wetzlar as secretary to von Hoefler, an ambassador. He was of an artistic disposition, and had been cold-shouldered by Wetzlar's high society. Goethe returned to the town to find out the details of Jerusalem's death. He asked Kestner for a written account, on which he was to base the final pages of his novel.

The novel is therefore partly autobiographical, partly biographical. Kestner noted that in the first part of the novel Werther was Goethe and in the second Jerusalem. Goethe later described the writing of the work as the business of four weeks, during which time he proceeded with the unconscious certainty of a sleepwalker, and specifically spoke of it as a "confesion". As it often happens, many readers started to confound reality with fiction: in spring 1776 a torchlit procession made its way to Jerusalem's grave. Nevertheless, there seems to be little evidence that Goethe's novel prompted a suicide epidemic. Yet a heated debate did rage over the question of the novel's probable corrupting influence. Meanwhile, teh novel was being translated into every major European language.

The English translation was produced by Daniel Malthus (father of the economist) in 1779. Influenced by Richardson's epistolary novels and Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield, Young and Gray, Hamlet and Ossian, it offered a familiar atmosphere, with scenes of patriarchal country life and wild, tempestuous landscape as were suitable to the prevailing English taste. Yet after the French Revolution Goethe and other German writers were identified with Jacobinism and condemned. Wertherism was supplanted in due course by Byronism.

The part of the novel which caused Goethe to be thought a Jacobin by English conservatives in the 1790s was the passage that dealt with Werther's exclusion from aristocratic society. It is true that beyond the struggles of one individual to assert his own larger sense of his place in creation lies a very real and discontented sense of the gap between aristocratic high society and the common folk.

The novel is also a sensitive exploration of the psychopathology of a gifted but ill-adjusted young man. The letter form is an apt expression of one-sided and lonely communication. The author interposes an ironic distance between the reader and Werther, which makes the novel a work of exhilarating style and insight. Werther can be considered the first great tragic novel. The weaknesses in Werther's character, his inconsistencies, are the very material on which his character is built, this is, the novel itself as a "litany of antitheses".

Goethe's non-epic 1st novel, that made him famous was less thought provoking than Faust. It is seen as a milestone in litterature due to it being written when romanticism was about to hit Europe (it, among others, opened the door for it).
An impossible love triangle, the desperation of a young inactive bourgeois and how life's events, the world and his views of it lead to his inevitable suicide. A book that is difficult to fully understand in our cynical time without some input about the era's context.

Litterature history says this book led to the loss of many young ones. How scary is that fact. A long discussion of responsibility of the artist could be started from here.
It made you wonder : if reading methods could be taught in school so that the reader could choose to fully embrace the character's point of view, would that be a good thing ? Watching it from a distance, with detached interest seems the better option in this case ? What about the others ? Young desperate in-love people would probably find echo in their suffering were they to read this in the middle of a storm (but again, is it worth it ? isn't detachment a good thing ?). I didn't. Fortunately.

When I found this book on the reading list for my European literature class, and once I'd read a synopsis of the story, I wasn't expecting to like it much. And initially I was a little put off by the protagonist's melodramatic way of expressing himself, but by the time I'd finished the book, my opinion had changed drastically. I don't usually go in for tragedies, but this one is somehow different. "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is the tale of a young man, Werther, who seeks a new life by moving to a pretty country town and immersing himself in the beauties of nature. Once there, however, he meets and falls in love with Lotte, a young woman who happens to be already engaged to another man. Werther initially befriends the couple, but as the tension in this hopeless love triangle increases, so does Werther's depression deepen.

The story is told mainly in the form of a series of letters written by Werther to a close friend, William, whom we never actually meet, and occasionally a few other individuals, including Lotte. Each letter is dated and we see the progression and deterioration of Werther's mental state from infatuation, to love, and then to destructive obsession and despair. Toward the end of the book, shortly before Werther's depression finally drives him to take his own life, the narrative style abruptly switches to third person, allowing us for the first time to see the thoughts and emotions of other characters without having them first filtered through Werther's unreliable perception. And the viewpoints of those around Werther give us critical insight into the manifestations of his mental state.

Over the years this book has sparked much concern as to whether it advocates suicide in cases of unrequited love. And indeed there have been cases where individuals were motivated to take their own lives after reading this story. However, those who draw such a message from "The Sorrows of Young Werther" are, I believe, misinterpreting the work. Though the protagonist does indeed commit suicide, his act is not glorified (just look at the pitiful way in which his death is described) and nowhere does Goethe make any commentary on whether suicide is right or wrong in such a situation. In fact, I didn't find anything judgmental in the book at all. Rather, Goethe simply explores the human heart and emotions, presents his findings, and leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Despite being a first novel for Goethe, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is beautifully written. I cannot compare this particular translation (1962 Signet Classics printing, translated by Catherine Hutter) to the original German text, but even in translation it is clear that Goethe had a powerful command of the written word. And it is quite plausible to believe that the depth and intensity of emotions expressed in the work are a result of Goethe's own experiences with unsuccessful romances. This particular edition also contains an interesting piece entitled "Goethe in Sesenheim" in which he relates one such relationship and in which we can identify many parallels with Werther's story.

This Signet Classics edition also includes two other short stories - "The New Melusina" and "The Fairy Tale." Neither one is, in my opinion, as good as "The Sorrows of Young Werther," but they are interesting to read nonetheless. Both contain the theme of love, making the book as a whole into a nice exploration of this particular emotion. "The Fairy Tale" is a rather strange and rambling tale, the plot of which is difficult to pin down and identify, and I could either take it or leave it. "The New Melusina" is my favorite of the two, and is told from the perspective of a traveling gentleman who enters a relationship with an alluring but mysterious woman he meets at an inn. He later discovers that she is a pixie, and must then choose between joining his love in her own world, or losing her forever.

"The Sorrows of Young Werther," as well as the other pieces in this edition, really does give us a lot to think about. Goethe's insights into human emotion are right on the mark, and he expresses them in haunting and moving language. While many modern readers will balk at Werther's extreme romanticism, it is really only his outward expression of emotion that is so alien to us. Once you get past this and delve into the actual feelings beneath, most readers will realize that they can identify with Werther in many ways. Nearly all of us has been in a similar romantic situation, longing for someone we will never have, and Goethe offers a wealth of material for us to contemplate in analyzing our own emotions. Any thoughtful reader will find much to appreciate here.

It may be difficult for contemporary readers to understand why, after reading "The Sufferings of Young Werther", so many young German men of Goethe's time killed themselves. Not only did they kill themselves but also they dressed in the same clothing that Werther wears when he takes his own life. Clearly they identified with Werther and it is incumbent upon us to understand why.
For those of you who are not familiar with the story, Werther is a youthful German gentleman at the dawn of his civil service career. Unlike his contemporaries, Werther is awkward, socially clumsy, and extremely sensitive. He is also desperately in love with a woman named Charlotte (Lotte) whose feelings toward Werther are not mutual. After Lotte rejects him, Werther goes to a party where he is publicly humiliated. This being more than Werther can bear, he returns home and kills himself with a pistol.
Werther's suicide is more than a response to Lotte's rejection. In a sense it is a disavowal of the society he lives in. Werther's emotions and sensitivity make him something of an oddball among his peers who ultimately scorn and reject him. At the end of the story, Werther is not only heart-broken but also isolated.
Some reviewers have drawn interesting comparisons between Werther and other romantic heroes such as Heathcliffe. The comparison that interests me the most is the one between Werther and Pechorin, the notorious protagonist of Lermantov's "A Hero of Our Times". Unlike Werther, Pechorin is a man of action who isn't rejected by women or society but who ultimately rejects them. Pechorin does not kill himself directly, but he leads a life-style, replete with adventures and duels that ultimately results in his destruction. Both characters essentially feel that they have no place in the world they live in and each orchestrates his own destruction.
In a sense, Werther and company are predecessors of existentialist anti-heroes such as Merseault, the taciturn narrator in "The Stranger". They may also be the precursors of more contemporary figures such as Jim Morrison, Janice Joplyn and Kurt Kobein. If literature reveals a trend of alienation and self-annihilation in the western world during the past two hundred years, then we ought to ask ourselves why it occurs. Perhaps as the world grows more organized, technical, and full of protocol it requires an increasingly larger degree of conformity. Cooperation and team-work demand the removal of individual impulses. If one can't love or can't act outside of public requirements then one has few alternatives left. When critics complained to Goethe about the copycat Werther suicides, he responded that if the commercial system killed so many young men, then couldn't Werther have a few. Suicide, like so many other extreme acts of destruction, isn't the solution to rejection, loss, and alienation, but it is certainly a symptom that is difficult to ignore.

There is no doubt about the literary poignancy of this book, or for that matter the masterful mind of its author. But it must be said that the undeniably strong sorrows of young Werther came from an all-consuming love of himself-not from love of another. Or rather he seemed in love with the idea of having someone to consume his idle days and, what he imagined, his large and thoughtful mind. His precipice, from which he condescended to view his every move, thought and encounter, was lofty indeed.
The pastoral atmosphere of the book is what captivated this reader. It's a pity Werther couldn't heed Albert and Lotte's sound advice about retuning his strong emotions...or at least spend more time under Linden trees with his Homer (this would have been my suggestion to him). Perhaps it was the poetry of the equally love-torn Ossian, which came to replace his classic text, that helped spur on his emotional demise. Whatever the case, it was painful to read of his self-indulgent romance with his ideas of love and devotion. He was kidding himself in the grandest and noblest fashion imaginable.
Please don't think me a heartless soul, or someone who couldn't possible understand such an intense love; I just didn't see it that way. However much frustration I felt at Werther's extreme pathos, I remained in awe of the beauty of Goethe's emotive and descriptive writing. Am I contradicting myself here...with talk of emotion? You be the judge.

Courtly love is perhaps one of the most human of all experiences. I think that nearly all of us have had at least some familiarity with being in love with the one person we cannot have. "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is written by and based on a biographical event of one of the greatest minds of all time. Not even genius is immune to this painful ordeal.
The book is about adolescence; the stage in life where we feel it would be better to be dead than to be without that one (and only) person whom we think will make our life complete. It is the story of an overly-passionate young man's life that is cut short by his own ardor for love.
It cannot be overstated what an effect this book had on the populace of Europe in the late 18th century. There was an epidemic rate of young people who would dress up like Werther and kill themselves with the book itself in their pockets. Again, it is because the content of this story is so intimate to all of us that it ignites such a fire of pathos in us.
For all who choose to read this tragic book, I would recommend Thomas Mann's "Lotte In Weimer" as it is a wonderful "sequel" (sort of) to "Werther." If ever you have the opportunity to read anything by Goethe, my advice is to not waste it. Ever.

Johnann Wolfgang von Goethe's _The Sorrows of Young Werther_ (1774) is an epistolary novel recounting a young man's obsession with a woman who is affianced and later becomes married. In letters to an older family friend, Wilhelm, Werther describes his life while living in a small German provincial town, his growing obsession for Lotte, and his fledgeling efforts to separate himself from her and move on. Over the course of a year and half, from May 1771 to December 1772, Werther's letters outline the downward spiral of his own desperate romantic passion.

Ironically, the reason why Werther is in the rural village near Walheim, where he mets Lotte, is because Leonara, a woman whom Werther has flirted with, has fallen desperately, and perhaps dangerously, in love with him. Having left home as an escape and for respite, Werther is unsure whether he is "blameless" in Leonara's situation or if he did not "relish her perfectly genuine naïve expressions which so often made us laugh." Werther's uncertainty about his motives, his misperceptions of others, and his lack of concern about the effects of his behavior are a constant. At one point, he writes to Wilhelm, "No, I do not deceive myself!" claiming that Lotte loves him, only to doubt a few sentences later, "Is this presumption, or a sense of true proportion?"

The relationship between Albert, Lotte's husband, and Werther is especially interesting, as it moves from friendship to antagonism, entirely due to Werther's erratic behavior. In the end, Albert inadvertently helps Werther carry out his final plans by fulfilling a request from Werther. Albert's participation reveals a subtle, yet interesting psychological dynamic--hinting perhaps at Albert's own secret jealousies and frustrations, while also ironically realizing Werther's wish to drive a final wedge between Albert and Lotte.

Werther embodies the romantic extreme, and he is similar to other characters and personae found in writers from the Romantic Period, or of works written in the Romantic style. There is an irony to his plight, as the reader sees Werther's self-deception fester in the letters and as a result, the reader understands Werther more fully than Werther understands himself. The book appeals to the loves and obsessions of youth--again taken their utmost lengths. The book is a classic example of the values of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century romanticism.

My thoughts about the book are different from when I first read it as a nineteen-year old. Werther seemed more intriguing then. This time, I found myself imagining the thoughts and feelings of the characters Werther describes, particularly Lotte and Albert, versus Werther's own delusional depictions.

What is it about this particular novella which inspired a series of youthful suicides throughout Europe soon after its publication? Why did Napoleon insist on keeping the French translation with him during his campaign in Egypt? How did Goethe succeed in capturing the poignancy of the human heart, while fascinating a jaded but "enlightened" 18th century public? The young German author touched a universal chord with this slender volume, in which he offers tender insight on such diverse Romantic subjects as Love, Religion, Nature and Man's relationships with God and his fellow men. Why do critics consider it a classic of both German and World Literature?
Presented in a quaint literary style, this story consists of confidential diary entries and letters to a trusted friend, Wilhelm, by a senstitive protagonist, with the addition of editorial notes. (The latter results from the inveitable drawbacks of first-person narratives.) The plot unfolds as Werther, a young nobleman who interests himself in the daily activities of the peasantry, is enjoying an extended holiday in a scenic area of Germany. Free to savor the magnificent natural beauty around him, Werther is soon dazzled by the numerous charms of the delightful Charlotte--daughter of a local town dignitary. This paragon of feminie virtue and attraction appears more sensual and maternal than truly sexual.
Alas, the incomparable Lotte is already engaged to absent Albert, due home soon. Is she too naive to understand that in Werther she has acquired an ardent admirer? Is she aware of his easily-inflamed fascination, or the violent depths of his stifled emotions? Is she oblivious or heartless to his passionate despair once her fiance has returned? Just how long can she juggle two lovers, or even control her own dainty heart--which Goethe chastely and tantalizingly hides from us?
Readers will be be swept away on the floodtide of Gothe's untamed emotions, as poor Werther faces the inevitable. Ah, but which act requires or proves the greater bravery: to terminate the heart's torment by the simple act of Suicide, or to accept Life's harshness by continuing a lonely, meaningless existence? Which Hell is it better or nobler to endure: that of rejecting God's gift or that of eternal separation from the Beloved? The strain of a prolonged "menage a trois" can not be permitted to endure--neither from a literary or a moral point of view.
The last entries painfully point the way as Werther's despair cascades into definitive--albeit negative--action. Weep, hope forlornly with this ardent young man, even rage at his fate; then be swept away into the maelstrom of thwarted dreams. Analyze and pity Germany's most famous pre-Romantic hero, as he struggles though this psychological novel, for Goethe plays upon the reader's memory's heartstrings with the skill of Ossian's agonized harper.

Somebody may have told you this is a story about some late 18th century guy who is unhappily in love with a girl and ends up killing himself. That somebody might add that Napoleon disliked this unhappy ending, and that the book so impressed its young readership that people did not only start to dress like Werther but even killed themselves.
The fairly slim novel consists of letters written by Young Werther to his friend Wilhelm. The book is not just a love story, however, for there are quite a number of other things which make his life difficult. Werther is supposed to start a career, but the sensitive young man finds it impossible to play his part in the soulless machinations of his bosses. Maybe his love for Lotte, who is married to another man, becomes so important to him, because she stands for the simple, authentic life he wants to lead.
This book triggered off the Romantic movement all over Europe and seems to have been the "Generation X" of its time.

This book is about a desperate and misinformed young man who contemplates and ultimately does, suicide. Shocking in the 1700s it is an interesting character study. Love can Bette worst thing sometimes when it is not returned. The book is short and this printing very cheap and the type is kinda small.

First masterpiece unleashed upon world by then 24-year old Goethe, written in just 3 weeks to cope with unanswered love from some forgotten she-devil. The booklet 'caused quite a commotion and propelled Goethe to fame and a more relaxed financial position, Napoleon claimed to have read it 5 times (it's a short book...). All Goethe's work is written to give people hope, insight and earnest love when needed, and this is no exception. The book dismantles Werther who spirals further and further to measly end, not by condoning his actions but by viewing him in a 3rd person satirital ironical light. Werther met his end because he failed to see the good around him, fixating on Charlotte and throwing away his sense of self. Goethe himself contemplated suicide a couple times, 'putting a dagger against chest and prodding" but quickly decided he wasn't of the constituence to do such silly folly. Werther lays dying in book for hours, another notion of why to NOT do it. So if your heart is broken, read this, and uncover you're not really Werther either and life loves you.

OK, young fool falls in love with married girl. Becomes friend of the couple. Husband starts to get annoyed. Hero declares his love and then commits suicide. You can read that in the paper once in a while. So, why is this a great novel and a landmark of Romantic literature? Because it has a lot to make us think. A famous fact related to this book is that, short after it was published, a series of suicides took place in Europe, mostly by young guys in the same situation as Werther. That should set clear the influence and strenght of the novel. It is extremely well written; the scenery is gorgeous -rural, upper class Germany in the Eighteenth century. The book is written as a secret diary addressed to a trusted friend, and to any readers, young or old, it will strike a chord in their hearts. Tell me, who is there that never experienced dreams of punishing that insensible beloved from school by committing suicide and then have her cry and repent at the funeral? But most of us are still here, with her or, most likely, with someone else or alone. We survived love's infatuation; Werther did not, and he is now a prototype of unlimited love (or lack of maturity, depending on your point of view). I prefer to see it as a great story written, at an early stage, by one of the greatest geniuses of all time. "Werther"

I read this book in a single night on a computer screen. I'm a slow reader who hates reading on a monitor, so the fact that I read through it in one sitting is testament to how strongly it resonated with me. I think people who give this book a poor review because they find Werther annoying and pathetic have simply missed the point. It would be like complaining that Macbeth is overambitious or that Hamlet is irresolute!

Although the characters are heavily romanticized, Werther in particular, I do not believe that they are unrealistic. The novel is epistolary and written in the words of a spurned lover, so the melodrama is perfectly natural. As Pascal once observed: "When we love, we appear to ourselves quite different from what we were before. Thus we imagine that every one perceives it; yet nothing is more false."

Having been through some romantic "turbulence" myself when I was reading this book, I found it to be hugely therapeutic. It could not have affected me so strongly if it had been unrealistic or artificial; indeed, anyone familiar with Goethe's life and the circumstances under which he wrote this novel would never make such a claim.

I think this is a book for those who have either recently experienced heartbreak or are young, idealistic and passionate about the world; if neither applies to you, then you may not enjoy it.

I received this book as a gift some years ago, and never bothered reading it as I assumed that based on the subject matter it would be too depressing - far from it!

True, it does have an extremely dark ending, but what I didn't expect would be all of Goethe's insights into life and living as told through Werther's letters to his friend.

And nearly all of Michael Hulse's footnotes in this edition are also worth reading. They add either important historical context (after all, the book is hundreds of years old) or insights into Goethe and the novel itself.

I was pleasantly surprised by this easy read. I don't know if I would recommend it to someone who is unstable or who has contemplated suicide, but what man hasn't suffered a broken heart or unrequited love at some time or another? All these centuries later, this book is still relevant and an engaging read.

This is a wonderful book, especially so as it was written early in Goethe's career. He gets much better after this. I have always wondered why folks express so much sympathy for Werther, even in Goethe's own time. It's always come across that Goethe wants us to feel less sympathy for the character as we go on. Werther becomes increasingly self-involved in how he feels and has no real love in any kind of empathic sense. The world and everyone in it should be revolving around him and satisfying his feelings. The way he ends up is unsurprising. The melodramatic way he justifies himself has always seemed a warning against the selfish and immature Werther in everyone.

Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe gave himself a rite of passage by writing this book. He was suffering from a great deal of emotional confusion at the time, and the story served as a catharsis to expunge what he felt were unhealthy aspects of emotionality in his personality. The story is popularly classified as Romanticism because of it's rich organic imagery and overwhelming emotional tone. Goethe never thought or referred to himself as a Romantic. In his later years, he viewed Werther as a stage of life in which he had undergone a sort of transformation that aided him in leaving his adolescence behind. The story of Werther that unfolds through his letters is a lucid description of the strong subjective nature of restless emotionality characteristic of a youthful stage in life. The significance of what Goethe captures in this novel is how clearly it demonstrates, in an archetypal manner, the transgressive and oppressive nature of the emotions when fixated at immature levels of masculinity. The story is absorbing and beautiful, and made all the more remarkable by the fact that Goethe wrote it at age 24! I will never forget this book. If you want to read Goethe this is the place to start!

This is of course a great classic, which had a profound impact on the culture of its time. Sometimes, I truly appreciate great classics, for themselves as works of art, not just as for artifacts of culture. But sometimes, I can't make the breakthrough and get really involved with a work -- I observe it, rather than experience it. "The Sorrows of Young Werther", for me, was such a book. I am glad I finally read it (I have certainly read enough about it, over the years) but I won't do so again. Perhaps if I read German, or perhaps if I were a third as old as I am ----- .

I have just finished reading Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther and I don't think I've read anything so powerfully moving in years. It is at once both tragic and beautiful. The story consists of letters that Werther has written to a friend describing his passion for "Lotte", his charming, but very married, love interest. We watch as the overly-romantic Werther gradually becomes unhinged and finally kills himself when he realizes he can't have his beloved. Besides this lovely, sad story you also get Goethe's beautiful translation of Ossian's poems near the end. Reading this novella brought back memories of how I once had such passionte yearnings for the loves of my own life --- before I thankfully (and regretfully) got more worldly-wise. This one will be high on my favorites list and will be re-read often.

Mann, apparently(read above),said that Napolean carried a copy of this with him and read it seven times. I want proof of that, perhaps a notebook entry with his review. Romanticism is a difficult movement to revisit, especially German romanticism which was the most extreme. Were it not for the romantic movement we would still be writing clever Swiftian tales of the tub. Maybe that would not be such a bad thing. Romantics, true ones, only have one thing to do, die. That is perhaps why the movement did not last. Werther is complex, very smart, but he just allows his feelings to be his dominant function to use a Jungian phrase. Feelings when sharpened by thought become very interesting things but Werther never allows his thinking self to converse with his feeling self. Byron was a much more interesting romantic because his heroes possessed both faculties in equal portions and so his is not such a dreamy aesthetic, Byron feels but his feelings have teeth and Byron was romantic but one that did not wholly give up on Pope and the tradition he represented. Werther just feels too passive. This work is revolutionary because it throws over all the past betting all on a new kind of vision(admirable) but I wish it were greater. I want to see Werther mature beyond this moment in his life, that is the only logical thing for him to do(ah, logic). But Goethe was writing about a true romantic and the only real consummation for a romantic is death. Luckily Goethe himself did follow his logic as an artist and became much more than a romantic, he became a spokesmen for mans deepest and most enduring longings. I believe Goethe lived to be 83.

I loved this book. It is about young Werther, who falls in love with a married woman. Yet he cannot stop obsessing about her. His obsession drives him and becomes fatal. Once he realizes there is no hope between them, he commits suidice.

The prose is excellent - almost poetic. The scenery is meticulously described and is just breath-taking.

The quotes on love are profound and thought-provoking. My favourite was, "Must it so be that whatever makes man happy must later become the source of his misery?"

Oh, Werther !

This is a great classic for everyone to read - but I recommend it to mature readers. The language is okay enough, but if you're not used to reading books written in a different era, you might have some trouble getting through it. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a tragic romantic read.

Scientist, philosopher and poet....Goethe was all these things and more. In this his most poignant work, he reveals the nervous breakdown and suicide of the title character. He does this by using letters to present a more intimate picture of unrequited love and its consequences. While the book is far from a happy one, it reveals how deep suffering makes for some of the best art. Hidden behind this depth is a certain 'laughter of the gods' that makes the reader realize the genius insight Goethe possessed into human nature. What is even more amazing is that he conveys this incredible tale in only 130 pages. Be prepared for one of literature's biggest emotional roller coaster rides.

Written in 1774 when he was only 24, Goethe's classic tale of the youthful artist too consumed by love to live has been a romantic staple for more than two hundred years. Goethe was an unabashed worshiper of Napoleon for the heroic energy of that man of action, and ironically enough, Napoleon read Werther at the age of 17 and identified with the romantic hero according to Napoleon's diary at the time. But banned and attacked at the time, Werther was taken to heart as much as the book was reviled at the time of its publication. This brand new translation is a welcome update, making the epistolary novel accessible to a new generation.

Once on here I read a comment by someone that the American educational system is biased against works not written in English. Obviously, this is true.
The greatest sin caused by this is that Americans aren't ever realy exposed to Goethe more than to read 'Faust, p. 1' once in college. This book, even in translation, is one of the most powerful books ever written: Goethe here created a psychological kind of novel that was never again equalled (though Gide's 'Straight as a Gate' and Flaubert do come close....) and NO Americans EVER read this.....
Buy this book. It is haunting, beautiful, and every other adjective that you might want to lay upon it. Goethe, perhaps the world's best writer ever (even out of German, when translated well...) writes his best work in prose (in my humble estimation....) here.....
Read this!

I really wanted to love this book. I enjoyed reading Goethe's Italian Journey and I've read so many flattering things about Young Werther that I've looked forward for some time to the experience of finally reading it. Unfortunately, it just didn't grab me.
The positives include Goethe's poetic descriptions of nature and the powerful imagery they evoke and the frequently beautiful language with which Werther depicted his obsession with Lotte.
The primary problems I had with the work were the repetitiveness of Werther's self-pitying missives and a certain incredulity I could not shake relative to the foundations of his compulsion. In the final analysis, a persistent feeling that Werther was silly and unjustified in his fixation and self-indulgent in wallowing in his misery dulled the impact of his fate on my senses substantially.
I am hoping for better things from Faust...

We tend to think of our era as unique when we descry the impact that the media has on our young people's behavior. Well the same thing happened 200 years ago when this book was first published. Impressionable young readers who identified so completely with Werther went out and committed suicide by the droves. Werther is the prototypical Romantic male, who "feels" more deeply than the rest of humanity. Unlike Heathcliffe, who settles on revenge as an answer to his thwarted designs, Werther takes it out on himself. Of course, there's a great deal of self-destruction at work in Heathcliffe's persona too. I would recommend this to a reader who is just getting to know Goethe. I read it when I was about eighteen and it definitely struck a nerve with me at that time. It made me want to read everything by Goethe I could find in translation. Read it, and if you like it, as I am sure you will, go on to Goethe's two great Romantic novels, Elective Affinities and Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. I found in my earlier readings that I never went wrong with what used to be referred to as Penguin Classics (now Vintage) translations. They're normally all top-notch, whether Greek, Latin, French, German, Russian, etc. PS: If you're a young reader, please don't take Werther too much to heart. It's only a novel, ok?

The key to really enjoying this work is to focus on the character. Of course, most of the work is writing in the form of letters, which makes the task exceedingly easy. Though this book can be very depressing (to some) and involves a lot of crying and reflection, Werther is so well-developed that I must praise Goethe for such a wonderful accomplishment. Personally, I could spend hours debating about Werther. This work definitely goes beyond what it indicates (forbidden love) to reveal a lot about our intricate natures as well as being a classic work of Romanticism.

This is really one of the classics. Not a book to read because of the story, since we all are familiar with the story, but to enjoy the language and the feeling the language creates. I dislike that in this edition the young ladies name is changed from Lotte to Charlotte, wonder why they felt the need to change the name made classic through this book.

Just read the letter of May 22, to glimpse the magnificence of this book! I just finished this book and am in awe of its beauty and depth of emotions and philosophy, not just about passion and sentimentality that some people may think, but about the transient existence of human life, its place in nature, and the author's extremely hightened awareness and sensibility. (the author was only 24 when he wrote this book, Really!) I am madly in love with this book.

You really have to pity a guy who receives such high-strung, and self-loathing letters from a friend who is just starting out and watches it all crumble. Too bad we don't have an account of his own commentary, but Goethe never satisfies this longing.

Sadly, there were so many ways Werther could have walked away from all of this, and his end, and I was extremely proud of him for leaving town the first time around. Why didn't he stay with the Prince and "detox" a little more?

You definitely can tell a guy is mad, too, if all he says is he love's Lotte's brothers and sisters, and yet seems totally unaffected when told by Lotte that the youngest boy Hans has died from illness. Some love.

The eerie encounter he has with the mad man and the erstwile farmhand-turned-murder should have scared him to death, since they were both mirror images of what he could have become, had he chosen to stay the course of his madness. Too bad.

Boy, you knew she was taken, even the hens in the wagon told you this; and you messed up royally at work, and should have allowed the Prince to help you. Silly things men due for love...

When reading The Sorrows of Young Werther for the first time I was very impressed. At the beginning of the novel I could detect the depression with Werther. This depression was not only the love of Lotte but depression of life as a whole. He appeared to be a lonely man who craved for someone to love him. In some ways I disliked Werther. I felt like saying to him to pull himself together and get on with his own life and stop running after something which has already been caught by someone else.

Is the writer responsible for the harmful results of his work , when he did not intend those results at all? Is there some moral fault in Goethe for writing a work which led to the suicides of many young people?

I do not know the answer.

'The Sorrows of Werther' a story of obsessive and doomed love is told in the form of letters sent from Werther to his friend William. The infatuation with which he begins in time turns to a maddening obsession from which he cannot free himself. 'Love or Death' is the choice, and the choice becomes Death.

I confess that my own attitude upon reading this work even as a young person was somewhat distant and ironic. Perhaps unfairly Goethe represented to me and represents the height of that enlightened cultured Germany , the Germany of Bach,Mozart, Beethoven, Kant which in the twentieth century descended into absolute barbarism and was responsible for one of great crimes in human history, the Holocaust. Reading this story with that immense Horror in the background the story seems like a kind of toy, a kind of poor joke not to be taken very seriously. Who can possibly care about one lovesick little yokel when the pictures of concentration camps are in the mind?

Iknow the work swept Europe and was highly innovative in its day. I know it is considered a classic of German and Western Literature. But for me this story has no emotional resonance whatever. Perhaps this is unfair, but perhaps it too indicates that reviews are written by people who have their own histories and memories. And that these help create their own readings, whether for bad or for good

hymns! fire-dance! i adore werther's volcanic zest for life! i revel in his gush of emocean! i cannot help but be stunned with his flames, his zeal and his lightning! with anna karenina we met a woman of water, snows, whiteness, silk, flax and for-est, a member of the passive gender, one who is oppressed by love's evasive manuevering, with werther we encounter a hot man, one of fire, of basalt, of iron, of cannon and sword. here is man who cannot manage his combustions and his passions that charlotte arouses and thus eventually succumbs to the cen-taur of death! no work exemplifies the tragic inability to master the passion than does this torrent of fire and sulfur! what potential lied in werther's chasms! what socratica whirled through his cortex! who knows what discoveries would have befallen him had he ruled his soul's mercenaries and marched forth into horiza's hazard!? who knows what platmoloquence he would have penned to paper and by exentension the minds that would have illuminated at the reading of his flow-gush!?

love is bellicose, wild, savage, cougaresque, hard, a falcon armed with talons of blade, a tsunami capable of blighting en-tire fishing villages in seconds, and in this work that truth shines in limpid radia! for two and a half years werther wres-tles with the demons charlotte unleashes upon him. he nearly masters his interior gorgons, leaves his calypso, immerses him-self in society's fold for a time, but he fails to find sanctuary from love's ruthlèssum and then once again he is drawn back to his inevitable demise and disintegration. this is work of karka-toam, of avanlanche, it is a study into the demons of passion and a warning to all those who sense too many hurriflames within them. read with care, dear reader, therefore and know that love employs the reaper from time to time armed with his unforgivable scythe and that as you revel in your lover's arms or pine for their crystal while alone in the night-forest that death's chains surround them.

author of Lorelei Pursued, Wrestles with God

This is the only work by Goethe I have yet read. While the story was very interesting and you can't help but feel for Werther I found myself angry at him in the end. Doing what he did and then orchestrating it such that others have to live the rest of their life feeling guilty for it (I am trying not to give away too much here) is horrible. He fell in love with someone that wasn't "available" and then he spirals downward and ultimately blames the other person for their unavailability. Like all good works of literature the story doesn't necessarily tell you how to feel. It doesn't raise Werther up as either a hero or a villain (though I get wafts of the former). I walked away feeling like he was a villain, but enjoyed the story nonetheless and would recommend it to anyone who likes well written literature.

This book was a groundbreaking work of romanticism. Feelings, moods, and nature pretty much set the tone for all the action of the book. The story is sad and the hero pathetic, but we care for him. This book is an important assertion of irrationalism in both life and art, and the role of poetry in human reasoning. This is probably a good introduction to Goethe and one of the major phases in the evolution of the novel's form.

"Closet Book" is my term for a book that is tossed into the back of the closet a forgotten. This book I found to be a boring,pointless piece of rubbish. A long series of meandering diary entries. I'm starting to nod off even thinking about it.

I exclaim, it most be me! By all accounts from various "scholars," this novella is a classic. It has been proclaimed as a work of clarity and poetic beauty. I disagree. I have just read Goethe's 1774 "masterpiece" in one sitting in around 3 hours and I am as perplexed now as when I first read it six years ago at the Top Of The World in our departed World Trade Centers. The novella is very straightforward and consists of letters our hero (?) writes to Wilhelm. Over the course of these letters, that take place over one and a half years, we see Werther slowly slip into mental sickness. Werther believes he has seen "true love" in the form of Lotte, but unfortunately for him, she is due to marry a nice gentleman named Albert. All goes well for Werther for a few months, until Albert (who was away on business) enters the picture. At this point, the novella gets very repetitive and consists of Werther bellyaching an exclaiming the ever present "woe is me." Werther is supposed to be smart, well read and a wit, but comes across as a bore. I never felt anything for any character in the book and when I am not attached to them, I do not care about their outcome. I have read in some reviews that this book is quite "poetic?" I am at a lost to why unless this book loses a lot in the translation from German.

Overall, it is my opinion that this work by Goethe is very overrated. I also will state that my #1 reason why I did not like this book was because I could never understand the "love" concept that Werther had for Lotte and what drove him to do "it."

When The Sorrows of Young Werther was first published, young men threw themselves to their death over beautiful girls. The impact this novel had on the perception of love and romance is no mystery to one who reads it with an open mind and heart. The modern reader hears the term 'classic' and shudders. IF it is not appropriate 'beach' or 'airplane' reading, the novel becomes a relic - confined to the dusty basements of our interest. Werther transcends time with his undying eccentricism. He takes romanticism to its exmplosive, eccentric limit. He is the struggling poet in us all, brought out by forces we do not understand - by a visage of beauty so stunning it blinds us to our own good senses. Who hasn't felt this? Who has not desired to feel this? We could do far worse than to pick up young Werther as he embarks on his travels. To accompany him is to accept a part of ourselves that is not 'contemporary' or 'modern.' A part that simply: is.

The Sorrows of Young Werther is an everchanging book. At first, Werther despises people who are the depressed kind. Later, he becomes one of them himself. And it is all because of one woman. He is very good friends with her, and is always longing for more. The problem is, she is not interested in him that way, and she is married. The transition of Werther's outgoing cheerful personality is almost immediate. He becomes more and more withdrawn. Almost anyone knows the ending, if they have read the back of this book. One of my favorite things about this tragic story is how it is told in the ninetinth century speak, which I had to adjust to, being only fifteen. It is worth the trouble though, and is frighteningly relatable. Who on earth hasn't liked someone who just wanted to be friends? This book fully deserves five stars.

The young man Werther fell in love with Lotte, the woman who has fiance. He worried about that helpless love, and at last he decided to kill himself...

The ending was sad, that is to say, it was shock. I cried from this shock. After I finished to read it, tears didn't stop running.

Whatever I read it many times, I always cry at the ending.

Some people say this book is about recommandation of suicide, but it's not recommandation of suicide for me, and I have an opposite thought.

After I read this book, I wanted to say this message to Werther:

"You could find new love again, and you could get happiness, but why did you decide to kill yourself? Didn't you find other ways except to die?"

When you get over the sorrow or pain, you can get happiness. If you killed yourself, you can't get happiness. And you will make your family and friend sad.

In this book, Lotte's fiance Arbert denied suicide. I deny suicide too.

I'm a 16-year-old high school student now. I think I may feel sorrow or pain from now on. But when I feel sorrow or pain, I can't kill myself. It's because I can get happiness when I get over them.

This book made me realize so. And it gave me confidence.

If you are worried about something, I want you to read this book. I think this book will give you confidence.

I don't think I've been this annoyed by a main character since "The Catcher in the Rye." Werther is probably one of the most irritating, whiney characters in the history of literature. I never once felt an ounce of pity for this obsessive, creepy guy, and I can understand completely why the girl pushes him away. A very unattractive personality, and I don't know what was going on at the time to make readers swoon for his "sorrows." I kept waiting for him to finally shoot himself, and when he did my feeling was, "thank god." That said, it is superbly written, and it does belong in any list of classic books. Even though the writing is beautiful, I still could not care about Werther, and I hope that today's readers aren't inspired to glory in self-pity the way Werther does.

For anyone who has ever entered into the absurdities of love, compulsion, and confusion, this book will hold a lot of meaning. The book is absurd on a lot of levels, but the annoying self-pity contrasted what may or may not be a love story cast light on the confusing nature of humanity.

Werther iscompletely filled with poetic romantism,that allow us to enter into the intimacy of the German bourgeoisie.Other than that,it's a romance of love,better yet,the romance of the wish to love.Goethe shows us through this epistolary monologue,the abtruse secrets of the heart and the reactions that,untill than,had never been analyzed.And last,the cult of nature.This cult is very different from the one from Rosseau: In the contemplation of Nature,the sentiments of Werther find infinite and preturbing ressonances.
Unsuitable for chardiacs! ;)

I am certain that Goethe should be read in German to fully appreciate his work. Catherine Hutter to me is the best translation of 3 translations I have read. Werther is a most wonderful book full of introspection and reflections of life. Napoleon read it 40 times! and was his chosen book to take when he visited Egypt. Thomas Mann read it over 10 times and I have read it five times already. After reading Werther, the reader must read Goethe's Reflections on Werther ( in the same book) to really understand the reason why he wrote this book. This is one of my favorites. Do not forget the Divan, Faust and mostly his biography by Emil Ludwig . . . . his poetry is the best!

The book was my introduction to Goethe, and it is one of the most beautiful books i have read for awhile. The depression Werther feels, against the world, and Lotte just touches the soul. An emotionally charged book, definitely one to read.

This is one of Goethe's earlier works, and in comparison with his other achievements, such as Faust or Elective Affinities, this book is not as engaging or well written. Some of Werther's lack comes from the fact that it is confessional literature, and is told by Werther--not Goethe. However, some of its shortcomings can be attributed to Goethe's own immaturity as a writer at the time. That being said, Werther is still a brilliantly written piece of literature that is not only thought-provoking, but beautiful as well, as exquisite art often is.

Goethe narrates in this greate romance one of the most powerfull emotions: the sorrow from an rejected heart. I've read some critics saying that the character is very boring, and the only thing that he made is to yeal all the time, the people who critic the most powerfull emotion of the book cant realy see, or they forget, that this is the romance who opened the Romantic Literature, is an incrdible journey to an romantic and suicidal heart.

The book was fantastic and werther, we call him lovely Werthi, is pretty cool. His opinions are right and we think that we would do the same in his situation. If we lived at that time we would be happy that Werthi wants to go study with us! Bye and love&hugs Werthi fans

goethe's morbid tale of a man madly in love is purely emotional and beautifully unrestricted. some call it over-exaggeration but when reading the book one must understand when goethe wrote it he wasn't trying to be subtle. the book, written in the form of werther's letters to wilhelm, already gives the reader a personal front. what werther thinks and does eventually, and how goethe writes it, is the strongest reason for this book's attractiveness. this is deep reading best for those who want to uncover a darker side to the human heart and mind

This is one of my favourite books. I can relate to loving people too much, so I understand what Werther is going through. It's an amazing story of love with a tragic end. Don't do what he did 'cause there's plenty of fish in the sea...at least, that's what "they" say.

Goethe is a master of poetry and this one ist the most emotional book he wrote.
In addition to the other reviews I would like to advise that its intersting to know the Sorrow of Young Werther was forbidden in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe a few years after its release. And the Reason shows the power of Lyric. As like their hero "Werther" hundreds of young unhappy men chose suicide. To avoid this the book came on the index of forbidden books.
That is the best prove how the Sorrow of Young Werther touches your heart

Gothe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is not only the best German love story, but also an excellent criticism of the society of this time. He shows the stiffness and decadence of the nobilty in the 18th century, nestling among a wonderful love story. No wonder, that so many young commoners of this time made suicide after reading this book. Allthough the time has changed a lot, the basics of cristicism of the German society, especially about the German petit-bourgeois and inflexibility, is still relevant.

I found Werther to be far too sensitive to relate to and his constant, overdramatised heartbreak for a woman he was never with and never could be (he knew from the beginning she was betrothed) to be extremely irritating. Perhaps the modern world I live in has hardened my own heart as I couldn't be sympathetic towards his 1700s perspective of love and courtship, or perhaps he was just simply annoying...
A reader should be saddened and affected by the protagonist having suicidal thoughts and share in their distress, but I was ready to hand Werther the pistol myself to ease my own suffering of having to read anymore of his self-important rants.

This book, made me realize the deceptions of life and ones` false judgments. I've read it countless of times and is yet to fail and not make me cry. I recommend it if you feel in need of a good cry, or tragedy.
Otherwise this might not be the book for you. The translations don't seem original, there are better translations elsewhere, but it's good enough.

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Translated Michael Hulse
Penguin, 1989
Originally published 1774
134 pages
Classic
3/5 stars

Source: Bought for class

Summary: A young man kills himself after being disappointed in love.

Thoughts: I thought this was so boring. I kept falling asleep while I was reading it. The most interesting part was the introduction which explained how part one of the book is based on a real-life experience for Goethe and part two is based on a case where a man killed himself for love.

I think I struggled against his ideal of female perfection, which includes a woman who is acting like a mother to her siblings after the death of their mother (reminded me of Bleak House) and just sounds really boring. The language was a bit too flowery and I didn't sympathize with Werther falling for a woman who clearly states that she is already involved with another man.

Overall: A short classic that you could read fairly quickly but not my taste at all!

Dear Mr. Goethe,
I just finished your book about Werther and, while the writing clearly demonstrated your remarkable poetic gifts, I nevertheless would not place it among your best work. Why not? Well, to be frank, I was just plain annoyed by the guy.
Right on the first page of the Dostoevsky's Brothers K., the narrator describes a woman, who like Werther having been rejected in love, jumps off a cliff "entirely to satisfy her own whim, and to be like Shakespeare's Ophelia." However, he goes on, "If this precipice, a chosen and favorite spot of hers, had been less picturesque, if there had been a prosaic flat bank in its place, most likely the suicide would never have taken place."
Yes, I think he's on to something here-- some people create "sorrow" for themselves simply to gratify their own vanity. This, I think, is what Werther did.
And what a snob he is!-- who is so fond of class distinctions until they turn and bite him in the arse! and how nice of him to condescend to give the peasant children pennies every now and then! it's a good thing he can afford so much leisure time.
To close, I would have to say that, like so many others apparently, I found your book moving-- only in my case it was my bowels that were moving.

If you want to know why Goethe became so famous - well, read this book, because this is the small novel that created his fame throughout Europe within just a few months. It describes his love affair with Lotte, the fiancee of a burocrate. Thomas Mann wrote later a novel (Lotte in Weimar) in which he describes the meeting of Lotte and Goethe 44 years later. Both these books are masterpieces.

This book is a must read for anyone who feels the hopelessness of todays society. this book is an easy book to relate to for some, if you have loved and lost. I really like this book alot and after i read it i bought all of Goethe's works i could get my hands on. He is in my own opinion one of the greatest writers ever, Period. Read it today.

Goethe's Werther widely reputation around the world, is due its absolute engagement with the febrile echoes of renovation and visceral way of life and think. On one hand the embodiment of the Romantic spirit had at least two well connoted protagonists: Lord Byron and Francisco Miranda, enthusiast pioneers of the flaming ashes of the recent French Revolution who understood and bet his lives under liberty' s flag and the untamed desire of the happiness of the human being.

Bought it to read because of the opera Werther. This edition has a great introduction to help contemporary readers better understand the context for the piece and what a sensation it caused in its time.

Probably the best love story ever written. It's impossible to escape the strange attraction of this book. If you can, read it in German, the english translation is ok. but this should be read in the original language.

Before I was halfway through this book I had already connected with it on a deep level. I didn’t know what was going to happen in the end but I knew Goethe was telling my story and the opposite of my story at the same time. Ten years later I published my first novel, The Sorrows of Young Mike, which is a parody of this great tale. I can only be grateful to Goethe and encourage everyone to read The Sorrows of Young Werther. Also, if you like it enough or even if you hate it — you should check out my parody.

So, I'm a little annoyed and stressed out because the store sent me a "new" copy, that was missing 40 pages. I needed this book for a college course and was tested on it. Unfortunately, it was later in the story that was missing the pages, and I was already only given a couple days to read it... it was too late to buy a new copy and read what was missing.

I would not recommend this book. The portrayal of Werther is very unrealistic and exagerated. The beginning of the book seemed quite interesting, but by the end I was just plain sick of it. His constant, pointless complaining just goes on.

This is a book to read, It talks about a young man's life. This young man suffers because he's in love with a woman which is promissed to many someone else.
He doesn't accept it and commits suicide.

Okay, I'm going to be the turd in the punchbowl here and say, "What on earth did everyone like so much about this book?" For a short book, this felt like it lasted forever. It was drawn out and boring. It is about a young man who is obsessed with a married woman. Werther is whiny and unlikeable in my opinoin. The book is a collection of letters he has written to his friend. The letters consist of his bellyaching about his unrequited love. I found Werther to be irritating and was quite apathetic to his plight. Thumbs down. I do not recommend this book, but apparently many others do.

This book is absolutely BORING!! I can't believe almost everyone (or is it just everyone?) rated this book as 5 full stars! First, I don't get it, second, Werther is somewhat pahychotic, and third, this book has no plot. Therfore, no climax, which is the most important part of a book.

This is not a great author than this Goethe . Neither his Faust nor this book are sufficiently spicy . An author like Dostoevsky might have lost less time describing the virtues of Young Werther or at least would have known better how to denounce the vices of the intriguing Albert. The reader may go deep in the heart of Werther but the thoughts of the other characters remain inaccessible to him . This veil would eventually tend to be considered normal, as an inalienable right of the individual.

For in truth one must imagine in Albert the most vile and shameful thoughts. A petty rivalry who congratulates shamelessly itself for the opponent's setbacks, a puppet trying at low cost to ruin any hope around him , a disease for the woman who accompanies him.

Instead of that Goethe protect him with his social dress and do not interfere.

My friend Jordie and I have read The Sorrows of Young Werther as well as several reviews of the novel and we have come to a single conclusion: He's mentally unstable. We find that it is NOT A TRAGIC LOVE STORY, but rather a story of a depressed, diluted individual completely disconnected from reality. Werther is too full his own virtue and cannot grasp the reality of his relationship to Charlotte. Werther's reaction to the events of his life are too emotional and over-dramatized. As we would say in German, ER IST VERRUECKT!!

Goethe came to loathe this, his most popular work. I concur in despising it. Werther is the most whiny, annoying, narcissistic protagonist in all of fiction. Charlotte, however virtuous, is an airhead. (She lends an obviously suicidal man a brace of pistols!) and Albert is a clueless clotpoll.
Napoleon was much smitten by the book, but history's monsters frequently have a maudlin streak.
Had Goethe been able to keep his authorship of this dreadful bit of Strum und Drang a secret, it would have been justly forgotten two centuries ago.