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The Sorrows of Young Werther. Novella
The story of a young man driven to suicide by an unhappy love affair, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is the first great tragic novel of Eurpean literature.
Includes "Novella".
Includes "Novella".
201 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1774
33 people are currently reading
747 people want to read
About the author
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
13.3k books6,918 followersA master of poetry, drama, and the novel, German writer and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent 50 years on his two-part dramatic poem
Faust
, published in 1808 and 1832, also conducted scientific research in various fields, notably botany, and held several governmental positions.
George Eliot called him "Germany's greatest man of letters... and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Works span the fields of literature, theology, and humanism.
People laud this magnum opus as one of the peaks of world literature. Other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .
With this key figure of German literature, the movement of Weimar classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries coincided with Enlightenment, sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang, and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours , he influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology. He also long served as the privy councilor ("Geheimrat") of the duchy of Weimar.
Goethe took great interest in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, and Arabia and originated the concept of Weltliteratur ("world literature"). Despite his major, virtually immeasurable influence on German philosophy especially on the generation of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, he expressly and decidedly refrained from practicing philosophy in the rarefied sense.
Influence spread across Europe, and for the next century, his works inspired much music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Many persons consider Goethe the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in western culture as well. Early in his career, however, he wondered about painting, perhaps his true vocation; late in his life, he expressed the expectation that people ultimately would remember his work in optics.
George Eliot called him "Germany's greatest man of letters... and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Works span the fields of literature, theology, and humanism.
People laud this magnum opus as one of the peaks of world literature. Other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .
With this key figure of German literature, the movement of Weimar classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries coincided with Enlightenment, sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang, and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours , he influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology. He also long served as the privy councilor ("Geheimrat") of the duchy of Weimar.
Goethe took great interest in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, and Arabia and originated the concept of Weltliteratur ("world literature"). Despite his major, virtually immeasurable influence on German philosophy especially on the generation of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, he expressly and decidedly refrained from practicing philosophy in the rarefied sense.
Influence spread across Europe, and for the next century, his works inspired much music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Many persons consider Goethe the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in western culture as well. Early in his career, however, he wondered about painting, perhaps his true vocation; late in his life, he expressed the expectation that people ultimately would remember his work in optics.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
October 29, 2015
When Goethe was a young man, he fell deeply in love with a woman named Charlotte Buff. Charlotte wound up marrying her fiancé, who was not Goethe, and abandoned our author to what David Foster Wallace once termed "a level of psychic pain wholly incompatible with human life as we know it." This is not synonymous with being broken-hearted. This is an existential crisis. And how do we know that? We know by the presence on our bookshelves of The Sorrows of Young Werther.
David Lynch once went to a psychiatrist. He asked the doctor whether the treatment process would damage his creativity. The doctor admitted it could. They shook hands and he left.
Artists are in a difficult position. The very region of the psyche that serves as a breeding ground for anxiety and depression is also the landscape the artist tills for truth in self-expression. Where most of the afflicted benefit from guidance toward emotional restriction, ruminative limitation, the realignment of patterns of thought, the artist does not. In fact, such tactics are frequently viewed as creatively threatening. So, apart from popping a pill and back-burnering the entire existential conflict (Anathema! Anathema!), what's an artist to do? Some choose to write their way through.
Under such circumstances, it is not at all surprising to find young Werther insufficiently drawn. Compartmentalization is the point, after all. The crisis is to be shunted into a fictional construct, distant from reality, where it can be adequately expressed and explored. As Werther is only a part of the identity of Goethe, he cannot be inhabited in full. Yet it is imperative that the madness he suffers be completely relayed. And so we have these letters written to a friend about a woman, about a passion, about investment, immersion, imbalance, disassociation, disconnection, pleasure, rage, agony, delusion, suicide; loss without gain. Werther seems, to many who have read the story, to be a dilettante, an egoist, a shallow and callow youth. W.H. Auden, in his introduction, calls him a horrid little monster. Perhaps he is, yet I think it's only fair to point out that Werther was never intended to have more than half a soul to begin with. He's a portion of life; the portion in which we encounter our vulnerability to insanity.
Readers of this novel trailed Goethe for the rest of his years with questions about the outcome. He admitted to wishing he'd never written the thing. Yet he also allowed that, in terms of psychic consequence, it was either Werther or him. Through authoring The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe was able to re-establish a sense of internal security without sacrificing his artistic self. Would that The Pale King had done the same.
David Lynch once went to a psychiatrist. He asked the doctor whether the treatment process would damage his creativity. The doctor admitted it could. They shook hands and he left.
Artists are in a difficult position. The very region of the psyche that serves as a breeding ground for anxiety and depression is also the landscape the artist tills for truth in self-expression. Where most of the afflicted benefit from guidance toward emotional restriction, ruminative limitation, the realignment of patterns of thought, the artist does not. In fact, such tactics are frequently viewed as creatively threatening. So, apart from popping a pill and back-burnering the entire existential conflict (Anathema! Anathema!), what's an artist to do? Some choose to write their way through.
Under such circumstances, it is not at all surprising to find young Werther insufficiently drawn. Compartmentalization is the point, after all. The crisis is to be shunted into a fictional construct, distant from reality, where it can be adequately expressed and explored. As Werther is only a part of the identity of Goethe, he cannot be inhabited in full. Yet it is imperative that the madness he suffers be completely relayed. And so we have these letters written to a friend about a woman, about a passion, about investment, immersion, imbalance, disassociation, disconnection, pleasure, rage, agony, delusion, suicide; loss without gain. Werther seems, to many who have read the story, to be a dilettante, an egoist, a shallow and callow youth. W.H. Auden, in his introduction, calls him a horrid little monster. Perhaps he is, yet I think it's only fair to point out that Werther was never intended to have more than half a soul to begin with. He's a portion of life; the portion in which we encounter our vulnerability to insanity.
Readers of this novel trailed Goethe for the rest of his years with questions about the outcome. He admitted to wishing he'd never written the thing. Yet he also allowed that, in terms of psychic consequence, it was either Werther or him. Through authoring The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe was able to re-establish a sense of internal security without sacrificing his artistic self. Would that The Pale King had done the same.
December 27, 2014
A different cover for this book features half of a young man's face, dripping with many tears. Covers of classics are usually classy, but this one's really bad. If you're me, you can't look at it without hearing "Everybody Hurts" and giggling -- I mean, it's way over the top. I thought the book couldn't possibly be that feelingsy. But it is!
But it's also gorgeously written, in a way that makes you (again if you are me) wish that everyone was this moved by other people and intuitive of their surroundings.*
* = I will admit that I did frequently want to, in the favorite words of my dad's mother, suggest that Werther "oh get a life."
But it's also gorgeously written, in a way that makes you (again if you are me) wish that everyone was this moved by other people and intuitive of their surroundings.*
* = I will admit that I did frequently want to, in the favorite words of my dad's mother, suggest that Werther "oh get a life."
June 12, 2020
THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER (1774; rev. version 1787) is a short novel about suicidal depression. Goethe used the intimate epistolary form, and its plausible, almost documentary appearance together with its subject matter and the indulgence in subjective emotions so dear to the "Sturm und Drang" movement which reigned in Germany in the 18th century explain why this book became a bestseller. Actually, Werther’s story was taken from a genuine case, the suicide of a man suffering from unrequited love for a married woman. This unfortunate man died a long and agonizing death just like Werther.
Apparently, after the novel was published, some young men were inspired to commit suicide in a similar manner to Werther, and some had copies of the book with them in their final moments. Others copied Werther's flamboyant way of dressing. Goethe was disappointed with the reception of his novel. He felt it was wildly misunderstood. In fact, Werther is not represented as a hero and suicide is not shown as "noble" at all. Werther not only destroys himself, he ruins his beloved's life too, as well as her husband's.
Goethe would be happy to know that readers living in the 21st century read this novel in an entirely different way. We do not read it as a tragic love story, but, as Auden suggests, "as a masterly and devastating portrait of a complete egoist, a spoilt brat, incapable of love because he cares for nobody and nothing but himself and having his way at whatever cost to others."
This was such an influential novel, therefore, it is highly recommended for readers interested in German literature.
Apparently, after the novel was published, some young men were inspired to commit suicide in a similar manner to Werther, and some had copies of the book with them in their final moments. Others copied Werther's flamboyant way of dressing. Goethe was disappointed with the reception of his novel. He felt it was wildly misunderstood. In fact, Werther is not represented as a hero and suicide is not shown as "noble" at all. Werther not only destroys himself, he ruins his beloved's life too, as well as her husband's.
Goethe would be happy to know that readers living in the 21st century read this novel in an entirely different way. We do not read it as a tragic love story, but, as Auden suggests, "as a masterly and devastating portrait of a complete egoist, a spoilt brat, incapable of love because he cares for nobody and nothing but himself and having his way at whatever cost to others."
This was such an influential novel, therefore, it is highly recommended for readers interested in German literature.
July 3, 2018
Catching up with classics
October 22, 2017
3 or 4 stars. The novella included at the end turned into the reading experience into some sort of religious Daniel in the lion's den story. I'm not sure if the themes from that Bible story/Novella are trying to be attached to Sorrows of Young Werther. Perhaps some Bible themes can be woven in.
I think Werther stands better on it's own. But I found it far more powerful reading it as a human's journey, without any religious ties or preaching. I could see the development of Young Werther and it seems like a realistic journey with a little melodrama added to give empathy a stronghold for the reader.
If you pick up this grey Vintage edition, skip the Novella at the end or read it well after the fabulous Werther story has seeped in. I found the Novella a bit jarring to read immediately after Werther.
I think Werther stands better on it's own. But I found it far more powerful reading it as a human's journey, without any religious ties or preaching. I could see the development of Young Werther and it seems like a realistic journey with a little melodrama added to give empathy a stronghold for the reader.
If you pick up this grey Vintage edition, skip the Novella at the end or read it well after the fabulous Werther story has seeped in. I found the Novella a bit jarring to read immediately after Werther.
August 14, 2018
I have had this book on my tbr list for 20 years. So I have read it. To not enjoy the story disappoints. I kept my emotions in check and read for quotes, for a study of literary elements of sturm and drang (storm and drive/urge) amd Proto-Romanticism. I recorded some quotes. I saw the strum and drang in the intense inappropriate love story. I saw the prot-Romanticism is some description of storm and an appreciation of near-pastoral scenes.
Emotionally reading this book could have been overwhelming. I chose to keep focused on literary aspects and to remember people this willful will do as they will. I watched willfulness play out. It is not attractive.
I am glad I read this novel as I felt as though I was missing out on something. Now I am done.
Emotionally reading this book could have been overwhelming. I chose to keep focused on literary aspects and to remember people this willful will do as they will. I watched willfulness play out. It is not attractive.
I am glad I read this novel as I felt as though I was missing out on something. Now I am done.
February 17, 2015
I felt more of a connection to this in my 20s, but I still think it is beautiful & passionate in its desperation.
August 28, 2018
OH MY GOD, QUIT YOUR WHINING.
September 15, 2022
I liked that. Don’t let desire consume you!
May 30, 2016
This book is pretty much the happiest thing I've ever read.
Actually, this book is pretty damn bleak. You know it's going to be -- it has "Sorrows" in the title for crying out loud! But I found out that apparently lots of people who read it then go and commit suicide right afterwards. Makes a lot of sense!
This is all about poor young Werther, who falls in obsessive, unrequited love... and can't handle it. The writing is beautiful, helped I think by the amazing translation by the two translators, one of whom was a poet in her own right (Louise Bogan). The most beautiful passages are not about love or sorrow, though -- they're about nature! Strange, I know, but there it is!
The attached story, NOVELLA, is also good. I think I liked it a little better than Werther, actually. It felt more immediate, had more action, and didn't make me want to kill myself at the end.
You should read this. You should hide all sharp objects, poison, guns, and nooses first, and maybe up your dose of whatever antidepressant you prefer, but you should definitely read it.
Actually, this book is pretty damn bleak. You know it's going to be -- it has "Sorrows" in the title for crying out loud! But I found out that apparently lots of people who read it then go and commit suicide right afterwards. Makes a lot of sense!
This is all about poor young Werther, who falls in obsessive, unrequited love... and can't handle it. The writing is beautiful, helped I think by the amazing translation by the two translators, one of whom was a poet in her own right (Louise Bogan). The most beautiful passages are not about love or sorrow, though -- they're about nature! Strange, I know, but there it is!
The attached story, NOVELLA, is also good. I think I liked it a little better than Werther, actually. It felt more immediate, had more action, and didn't make me want to kill myself at the end.
You should read this. You should hide all sharp objects, poison, guns, and nooses first, and maybe up your dose of whatever antidepressant you prefer, but you should definitely read it.
June 28, 2013
Shoot me. So much flowery, mindless romanticism that I wanted to go on a drinking binge when I finished to cleanse the mental palate. I wanted to beat up Werther. He's the kind of guy Gandhi would want to run over with his car.
November 25, 2020
i can't stop crying, i'm heartbroken.
April 5, 2023
geniální. nemám víc slov.
August 24, 2025
Mr. Obvious time. Goethe was a linguistic, scientific, musical, and literary genius. But damn, Sorrows of Young Werther was a slog. However, I confess that while I write this review as a hard-hearted middle-aged man, I can still dimly remember the passions of first crushes and unrequited love. So, I acknowledge if I had read this book at the age of 17, I would have been all in. Which embarrasses me enough to dislike the book that much more.
“Novella” on the other hand, was very enjoyable. A swift little parable of innocence and pastoral simplicity amidst the industrial churn.
“Novella” on the other hand, was very enjoyable. A swift little parable of innocence and pastoral simplicity amidst the industrial churn.
February 14, 2017
Before I can even begin to address the substance of The Sorrows of Young Werther, I first have to talk about nicknames. Nicknames, in theory at least, should be used only when they make a person's name both easier and more enjoyable to say. If someone is named Nicholas, calling him "Nick" or "Nicky" might be convenient and endearing. Calling a woman named Charlotte "Lotte" is neither of those things. The name Lotte conjures up the image (at best) of a very unpleasant, broad-faced woman, or, if you've spent much time with the Old Testament, the husband of a salt lick. Charlotte is a pretty name. Lotte is a grotesque one. Werther's decision to call Charlotte "Lotte" while continuing to call Wilhelm "Wilhelm" rather than Wil or Will or whatever is utterly ridiculous.
Unfortunately, his choice in nickname for his love interest is just one of many of Werther's failures in Goethe's semi-autobiographical epistolary novel. He falls in love with a woman he can't have, allows her to become his obsession, and then shoots himself after weeks of terrible suffering. Not exactly a banner 18-month stretch.
W.H. Auden, who wrote the forward to my edition, didn't feel much sympathy for Werther, calling him a "horrible little monster." I wouldn't go that far, as I find myself empathizing with some of his emotional turmoil, but dude, the world doesn't revolve around you. As someone who finds value in Romanticism and Romantic literature, I'm often frustrated by the way that passion and egoism seem to link together so frequently. In my dream world, profound feelings for both people and nature would make a man want to serve the people and things he cares about rather than weep bitter tears every time whatever he happens to love isn't just handed to him, but for whatever dumb reason, we don't live in my dream world. We live in a world where unrequited love makes one person a victim and the other an antagonist even if both people are acting on their honest emotions.
That being said, I'm not even entirely convinced that what Werther felt for Lotte was love at all. If you truly love someone, and you believe that they love you (as Werther did the last day of his life), then how do you ever make the decision that causing the person you love unimaginable pain is worth escaping your own pain? I don't even think a man as self-absorbed as Werther could justify that. I know next to nothing about mental illness, but I have a much easier time believing that his obsession with Lotte was the result of forces outside of his control rather than her charming personality and skill with a clavichord.
Weirdly enough, despite all that Werther went through, I don't believe that he'd see The Sorrows of Young Werther entirely as a tragedy. Rightly or wrongly (definitely wrongly), this was the kind of life that Werther wanted to live, the way he maintained that life should be lived. "I treat my heart like a sick child," he wrote, "and gratify its every fancy." His heart led him to a place no one should have to go, but at the very least, the journey there was the kind in which he believed.
Also, thank God kissing strangers' children is no longer a thing. Why was that ever a thing?
Unfortunately, his choice in nickname for his love interest is just one of many of Werther's failures in Goethe's semi-autobiographical epistolary novel. He falls in love with a woman he can't have, allows her to become his obsession, and then shoots himself after weeks of terrible suffering. Not exactly a banner 18-month stretch.
W.H. Auden, who wrote the forward to my edition, didn't feel much sympathy for Werther, calling him a "horrible little monster." I wouldn't go that far, as I find myself empathizing with some of his emotional turmoil, but dude, the world doesn't revolve around you. As someone who finds value in Romanticism and Romantic literature, I'm often frustrated by the way that passion and egoism seem to link together so frequently. In my dream world, profound feelings for both people and nature would make a man want to serve the people and things he cares about rather than weep bitter tears every time whatever he happens to love isn't just handed to him, but for whatever dumb reason, we don't live in my dream world. We live in a world where unrequited love makes one person a victim and the other an antagonist even if both people are acting on their honest emotions.
That being said, I'm not even entirely convinced that what Werther felt for Lotte was love at all. If you truly love someone, and you believe that they love you (as Werther did the last day of his life), then how do you ever make the decision that causing the person you love unimaginable pain is worth escaping your own pain? I don't even think a man as self-absorbed as Werther could justify that. I know next to nothing about mental illness, but I have a much easier time believing that his obsession with Lotte was the result of forces outside of his control rather than her charming personality and skill with a clavichord.
Weirdly enough, despite all that Werther went through, I don't believe that he'd see The Sorrows of Young Werther entirely as a tragedy. Rightly or wrongly (definitely wrongly), this was the kind of life that Werther wanted to live, the way he maintained that life should be lived. "I treat my heart like a sick child," he wrote, "and gratify its every fancy." His heart led him to a place no one should have to go, but at the very least, the journey there was the kind in which he believed.
Also, thank God kissing strangers' children is no longer a thing. Why was that ever a thing?
April 11, 2020
Technology just ate my more extensive notes on this, so here is the short version. The Sorrows of Young Werther is primarily a character study. It’s a simple plot line, but offers points to ponder on triangles, passion versus practicality, class distinctions, and what responsibility we bear to other people in our lives. W.H. Auden wrote the introduction to my edition, and I think he's a little too hard on poor Werther. More later, maybe, if I can muster the energy to recreate those vanished observations.
September 1, 2010
It gets points for inspiring the later Romantic poets, but is narrated by one of the most irritating protagonists ever. Still, it's an ambiguous work, and uncomfortable, possibly because Werther's dilemma hits us, at times, so close to home.
March 5, 2025
What an unputdownable journey. I loved the sheer emo melodrama of this classic, and somewhat glad to see that young people have been driven mad by unrequited love since the 1700s! I got sucked in completely to the tale of poor, pathetic Werther, the young fool! Reading of this novel’s success, you can see that there was just as much appetite for this sort of tragic tale back then as there still is – and how much it continues through contemporary novels, TV and film.
October 13, 2014
As much as I criticized Werther--and he deserves quite a bit of criticism--one can’t help but feel some pathos for the poor fellow at the end. I might have wanted to smack some sense into him, and yes, I even thought I’d derive some satisfaction from his suicide, but I felt bad for him all the same. It’s written in such a way that his melodrama only gives you the impression that he feels things too strongly, a fault many young people--and older people--are known to possess. “Love makes fools of us all,” as the trite saying goes, and Werther is the tritest of lovelorn fools there ever was, despite his eloquence--his only real redeeming quality.
Werther’s main fault is that he goes about things the wrong way. He’s not wrong to love passionately, but he seems to believe that loving passionately is an excuse for anything. Take the peasant who murders his “rival” (whether or not the romantic rivalry was real or all in the poor man’s head is hard to say and inconsequential). Werther goes to the magistrate and not only defends the peasant, but asks that he be let off entirely. Justice tempered with mercy is one thing, but you can’t let off a murderer just because he did it out of passionate love. Werther sees that a man’s motives and mental state ought to be taken into account when doling out his punishment, but he takes it too far. Just like his suicide. Dying of heartbreak is a romantic notion, if altogether impractical and typically metaphorical, but killing yourself for love is taking it too far. But such is Werther.
He is a whinger and, like most whingers, an egoist. He constantly praises his view of nature and his own nature. It gets a bit stale after a while, and by the time he moves away from Lotte to take a job as a clerk, it starts to seem like we’re reading the 18th century’s answer to Catcher in the Rye. Of course, Goethe’s prose is what saves it, from what I’ve heard. I obviously did not read it in the original German, and when I read translations, I typically like to refrain from commenting on the prose. However, I must say that even if Elizabeth Mayer's and Louise Bogan’s translation didn’t do Goethe justice, they certainly accomplished some beautiful prose.
If you read the novel as a straight-forward story, then, like I said, the prose is actually the only thing that saves it. But I think we’re all a bit smarter than that. It’s really more of a study of how we can get so wrapped up in the idea of a person, that we can lose ourselves in that fixation. After the first night with Lotte, he talks about nothing else for several letters--until he moves, if I’m not mistake. Before that, he wrote about nature, art, the local peasants, and what-have-you. Yes, they were still very hubristic letters, but at least his topics were varied. Bring in Lotte and everything, even when not about her, draws back to her. If you look at the dates to his letters you can clearly see that what might seem romantic over a longer period of time begins to look obsessive. He sees her every day, and according to his letters, she encourages his visits. But does she really? I suppose that comes down to how reliable of a narrator you think Werther is. I don’t quite trust him. I think Lotte was too polite to tell him he should find some other occupation, and he was too blinded by his obsession to realize it.
And, of course, that is what Lotte should’ve done: tell him to stop visiting. She should’ve had the common sense to see that letting a man who is clearly in love with her visit her every day would be detrimental to him and her relationship with her fiance. I can almost understand tolerating the visits before he moved, which was before her marriage, but after he moved back, she should’ve never allowed him such liberty. His feelings were never going to change, especially not while seeing her all the time. But then, we do get some insight into Lotte’s motives whenever Goethe takes over the narration: Lotte is considering what to do about Werther’s obsession and decides to pair him with one of her friends; but after mulling over each one, she decides none of them are good enough, which leads her to the realization that she, in fact, wants to keep him for herself. I’m not saying that it is Lotte’s fault that Werther killed himself, anymore than it is Albert’s fault for not telling her how bothered he was by Werther’s numerous visits (which he must’ve been) and hopefully putting an end to them. Werther had suicidal tendencies long before this. Somebody probably should’ve been taking them seriously. Though Lotte's personally giving of the guns to Werther's servant seems odd to me. I'm still puzzling over that one.
I might seem to be too harsh on Werther, but I think that’s because I see a lot of myself in him. He’s not really a character you want to see yourself in, unless you’re every young man from the late 18th century, apparently. It’s mostly how I was when I was in my mid-to-late teens and very early twenties, though I’ve never had suicidal tendencies. Werther makes me embarrassed for him, and for myself.
Werther’s main fault is that he goes about things the wrong way. He’s not wrong to love passionately, but he seems to believe that loving passionately is an excuse for anything. Take the peasant who murders his “rival” (whether or not the romantic rivalry was real or all in the poor man’s head is hard to say and inconsequential). Werther goes to the magistrate and not only defends the peasant, but asks that he be let off entirely. Justice tempered with mercy is one thing, but you can’t let off a murderer just because he did it out of passionate love. Werther sees that a man’s motives and mental state ought to be taken into account when doling out his punishment, but he takes it too far. Just like his suicide. Dying of heartbreak is a romantic notion, if altogether impractical and typically metaphorical, but killing yourself for love is taking it too far. But such is Werther.
He is a whinger and, like most whingers, an egoist. He constantly praises his view of nature and his own nature. It gets a bit stale after a while, and by the time he moves away from Lotte to take a job as a clerk, it starts to seem like we’re reading the 18th century’s answer to Catcher in the Rye. Of course, Goethe’s prose is what saves it, from what I’ve heard. I obviously did not read it in the original German, and when I read translations, I typically like to refrain from commenting on the prose. However, I must say that even if Elizabeth Mayer's and Louise Bogan’s translation didn’t do Goethe justice, they certainly accomplished some beautiful prose.
If you read the novel as a straight-forward story, then, like I said, the prose is actually the only thing that saves it. But I think we’re all a bit smarter than that. It’s really more of a study of how we can get so wrapped up in the idea of a person, that we can lose ourselves in that fixation. After the first night with Lotte, he talks about nothing else for several letters--until he moves, if I’m not mistake. Before that, he wrote about nature, art, the local peasants, and what-have-you. Yes, they were still very hubristic letters, but at least his topics were varied. Bring in Lotte and everything, even when not about her, draws back to her. If you look at the dates to his letters you can clearly see that what might seem romantic over a longer period of time begins to look obsessive. He sees her every day, and according to his letters, she encourages his visits. But does she really? I suppose that comes down to how reliable of a narrator you think Werther is. I don’t quite trust him. I think Lotte was too polite to tell him he should find some other occupation, and he was too blinded by his obsession to realize it.
And, of course, that is what Lotte should’ve done: tell him to stop visiting. She should’ve had the common sense to see that letting a man who is clearly in love with her visit her every day would be detrimental to him and her relationship with her fiance. I can almost understand tolerating the visits before he moved, which was before her marriage, but after he moved back, she should’ve never allowed him such liberty. His feelings were never going to change, especially not while seeing her all the time. But then, we do get some insight into Lotte’s motives whenever Goethe takes over the narration: Lotte is considering what to do about Werther’s obsession and decides to pair him with one of her friends; but after mulling over each one, she decides none of them are good enough, which leads her to the realization that she, in fact, wants to keep him for herself. I’m not saying that it is Lotte’s fault that Werther killed himself, anymore than it is Albert’s fault for not telling her how bothered he was by Werther’s numerous visits (which he must’ve been) and hopefully putting an end to them. Werther had suicidal tendencies long before this. Somebody probably should’ve been taking them seriously. Though Lotte's personally giving of the guns to Werther's servant seems odd to me. I'm still puzzling over that one.
I might seem to be too harsh on Werther, but I think that’s because I see a lot of myself in him. He’s not really a character you want to see yourself in, unless you’re every young man from the late 18th century, apparently. It’s mostly how I was when I was in my mid-to-late teens and very early twenties, though I’ve never had suicidal tendencies. Werther makes me embarrassed for him, and for myself.
August 10, 2010
While reading most novels I like to write down various quotes that, for the time, somehow resonate with me. The first quote I wrote down in this book was:
" When you ask me what the people here are like, I must answer; like people everywhere! There is a certain monotony about mankind."
The way that Goethe (at least in this translation) makes observations that bring out certain traits in his characters so subtly that it almost slips by the reader, is what intrigues me most here. This quote does a variety of things; it observes that people are no different in any society if you take them at face value, and it also characterizes Young Werther as somewhat of a narcissist and a pessimist, perhaps? Calling mankind monotonous is a gross generalization that only the blase at heart could truly feel while heightening his own status as above the norm. Thus, the reader must soon understand that Werther, is not an ordinary man, not like the rest of the monotonous mankind. He is one afflicted with a narrow perspective and one that taints his perspective so that he sees everything through a specific filter.
YET, Werther soon finds someone worthy of his attention.
"But she was mine, I felt her heart, her great soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was because I was all that I could be."
On the very next page of this book, Werther is thrown into a dramatic change of emotion which later becomes his obsession. As an aside, I've dated one man who said that he felt that if he was with someone who made him want to be a better man, then he knew that he really loved her and wanted to be with her. Sometimes it is a desperate act to love someone because you want to be a better person. Werther may fall into this category; wanting to love someone other than himself because he wants to be viewed as better than he is. If he could get the adoration that he wants from the person that he wants it from, maybe the world wouldn't be so monotonous after all. And whats more to possess another person he could feel in control of his own life.
And then, there is the confusion that comes with the intense love obsession.
"I shall try to see her as soon as possible, or rather, after giving it a second thought I shall avoid her."
Werther is a thinking man, a man who, like many of us in the world, over-think, and that can lead to obsession. This novella is a great character study, a thorough investigation on what it is like to be in love with someone unattainable, and how easy it is for that switch to flip on and become a pathological obsession that turns itself back on the owner of the obsession (hence the suicide). I think we all have the capacity to do many of the things that Werther does in this novella, but many people (let's hope, most) are somehow able to keep that switch turned off...or at least not all the way on...
I did not go into great depth here, but these were just some meanderings that I came up with in response to the quotes I wrote down. I wrote a few more down, but they were kind of long... Anyway, I enjoyed the book for it's rich characterization and melodrama that I wish to convey at times in my own life, but refrain from so that I do not slip into a pathological mind-space.
" When you ask me what the people here are like, I must answer; like people everywhere! There is a certain monotony about mankind."
The way that Goethe (at least in this translation) makes observations that bring out certain traits in his characters so subtly that it almost slips by the reader, is what intrigues me most here. This quote does a variety of things; it observes that people are no different in any society if you take them at face value, and it also characterizes Young Werther as somewhat of a narcissist and a pessimist, perhaps? Calling mankind monotonous is a gross generalization that only the blase at heart could truly feel while heightening his own status as above the norm. Thus, the reader must soon understand that Werther, is not an ordinary man, not like the rest of the monotonous mankind. He is one afflicted with a narrow perspective and one that taints his perspective so that he sees everything through a specific filter.
YET, Werther soon finds someone worthy of his attention.
"But she was mine, I felt her heart, her great soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was because I was all that I could be."
On the very next page of this book, Werther is thrown into a dramatic change of emotion which later becomes his obsession. As an aside, I've dated one man who said that he felt that if he was with someone who made him want to be a better man, then he knew that he really loved her and wanted to be with her. Sometimes it is a desperate act to love someone because you want to be a better person. Werther may fall into this category; wanting to love someone other than himself because he wants to be viewed as better than he is. If he could get the adoration that he wants from the person that he wants it from, maybe the world wouldn't be so monotonous after all. And whats more to possess another person he could feel in control of his own life.
And then, there is the confusion that comes with the intense love obsession.
"I shall try to see her as soon as possible, or rather, after giving it a second thought I shall avoid her."
Werther is a thinking man, a man who, like many of us in the world, over-think, and that can lead to obsession. This novella is a great character study, a thorough investigation on what it is like to be in love with someone unattainable, and how easy it is for that switch to flip on and become a pathological obsession that turns itself back on the owner of the obsession (hence the suicide). I think we all have the capacity to do many of the things that Werther does in this novella, but many people (let's hope, most) are somehow able to keep that switch turned off...or at least not all the way on...
I did not go into great depth here, but these were just some meanderings that I came up with in response to the quotes I wrote down. I wrote a few more down, but they were kind of long... Anyway, I enjoyed the book for it's rich characterization and melodrama that I wish to convey at times in my own life, but refrain from so that I do not slip into a pathological mind-space.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2012
Werther falls in love with Lotte, but Lotte is engaged then married to Albert, and both Lotte and Albert are happy together. Meanwhile Werther is this persistent sad third wheel who agonizes over his unrequited love and writes all these feelings down and sometimes it's like, "lol, dude." He receives casual notes from Lotte and apparently kisses the paper because once, he accidentally got sand in his mouth. He kisses Lotte's hand and more than once dropped tears all over her hand. He is possessive and imagines that if he were Albert, he would be a jealous demon. He is also a Virgo, like me, lol. He is pitiful but his experiences are very resonating at times, his arguments for suicide and titles and life achievement stuff ("giving pompous names to their shabby occupations. . .pretend that these are gigantic achievements for the happiness and welfare of mankind.") are very valid.
I particularly hate yet enjoy reading the ultra cringy parts, when he commits terrible errors, such as:
September 5
She had written a little note to her husband, who was in the country attending to some business. It began: "Best and dearest of men! Come back as soon as you can; I await you with the utmost joy." —A friend came in and brought a message from Albert saying that he would be delayed because of some circumstance or other. Lotte's note was not sent; and I found it by chance in the evening. I read it and smiled; and she asked me why. "What a divine gift is imagination!" I exclaimed. "For a moment I could pretend to myself that this was written to me." —She did not reply and seemed displeased; and I fell silent.
I do have favorite parts, too:
July 26
Many times I have made up my mind not to see her so often. If one could only stick to one's resolutions! Every day I succumb to temptation, and then promise myself most solemnly that I shall stay away tomorrow for once; but when tomorrow comes, I again find some irresistible reason to go, and, before I know it, I am with her. Either she has said the night before, "You will come tomorrow, won't you?" and who could then stay away? Or she has given me some errand, and I think it is proper to bring her the answer in person; or the day is so very lovely that I walk to Wahlheim, and, when I am there, it is only half an hour to her!—I am so close her aura—zut! and I am there. My grandmother knew a fairy tale about the Magnetic Mountain. Ships which sailed too close to it were suddenly deprived of all their iron; all the nails flew toward the mountain, and the poor sailors were shipwrecked among the collapsing planks.
I don't know. If I rated this book based on Werther, I would give it one star. But I should try not to judge a book by its character(s). And since Lotte counters Werther with her reason, there is some sense of balance and awareness of Werther's passions/madness (?). I think I like this novel.
I particularly hate yet enjoy reading the ultra cringy parts, when he commits terrible errors, such as:
September 5
She had written a little note to her husband, who was in the country attending to some business. It began: "Best and dearest of men! Come back as soon as you can; I await you with the utmost joy." —A friend came in and brought a message from Albert saying that he would be delayed because of some circumstance or other. Lotte's note was not sent; and I found it by chance in the evening. I read it and smiled; and she asked me why. "What a divine gift is imagination!" I exclaimed. "For a moment I could pretend to myself that this was written to me." —She did not reply and seemed displeased; and I fell silent.
I do have favorite parts, too:
July 26
Many times I have made up my mind not to see her so often. If one could only stick to one's resolutions! Every day I succumb to temptation, and then promise myself most solemnly that I shall stay away tomorrow for once; but when tomorrow comes, I again find some irresistible reason to go, and, before I know it, I am with her. Either she has said the night before, "You will come tomorrow, won't you?" and who could then stay away? Or she has given me some errand, and I think it is proper to bring her the answer in person; or the day is so very lovely that I walk to Wahlheim, and, when I am there, it is only half an hour to her!—I am so close her aura—zut! and I am there. My grandmother knew a fairy tale about the Magnetic Mountain. Ships which sailed too close to it were suddenly deprived of all their iron; all the nails flew toward the mountain, and the poor sailors were shipwrecked among the collapsing planks.
I don't know. If I rated this book based on Werther, I would give it one star. But I should try not to judge a book by its character(s). And since Lotte counters Werther with her reason, there is some sense of balance and awareness of Werther's passions/madness (?). I think I like this novel.
Read
April 15, 2014Werther's letter of August 18:
"Must it be that whatever makes man happy must later become the source of his misery?
"That generous and warm feeling for living Nature which flooded my heart with such bliss, so that I saw the world around me as a Paradise, has now become an unbearable torment, a sort of demon that persecutes me wherever I go. When I formerly looked from the rock far across the river and the fertile valleys to the distant hills, and saw everything on all sides sprout and spring forth - the mountains covered with tall, thick trees from base to summit, the valleys winding between pleasant shading woods, the gently flowing river gliding among the whispering reeds and reflecting light clouds which sailed across the sky under the mild evening breeze; when I listened to the birds that bring the forest to life, while millions of midges danced in the red rays of a setting sun whose last flare roused the buzzing beetle from the grass; and all the whirring and weaving around me drew my attention to the ground underfoot where the moss, which wrests it nourishment from my hard rock, and the broom plant, which grows on the slope of the arid sand hill, revealed to me the inner, glowing, sacred life of Nature - how fervently did I take all this into my warm heart, feeling like a god in the overflowing abundance, while the beautiful forms of the infinite universe stirred and inspired my soul....
"....
"It is as if a curtain has been drawn away from my soul, and the scene of unending life is transformed before my eyes into the pit of the forever-open grave. Can you say: 'This is!' when everything passes, everything rolls past with the speed of lightning and so rarely exhausts the whole power of it existence, alas, before it is swept away by the current, drowned and smashed on the rocks? There is not one moment which does not consume you and yours, and not one moment when you yourself are not inevitably destructive; the most harmless walk costs the lives of thousands of poor, minute worms; one step of your foot annihilates the painstaking constructions of ants, and stamps a small world into its ignominious grave. Ha! It is not the notable catastrophes of the world, the floods that wash away our villages, the earthquakes that swallow up our town which move me; my heart is instead worn out by the consuming power latent in the whole of Nature which has formed nothing that will not destroy its neighbour and itself. So I stagger with anxiety, Heaven and Earth and their weaving powers around me! I see nothing but an eternally devouring and ruminating monster."
"Must it be that whatever makes man happy must later become the source of his misery?
"That generous and warm feeling for living Nature which flooded my heart with such bliss, so that I saw the world around me as a Paradise, has now become an unbearable torment, a sort of demon that persecutes me wherever I go. When I formerly looked from the rock far across the river and the fertile valleys to the distant hills, and saw everything on all sides sprout and spring forth - the mountains covered with tall, thick trees from base to summit, the valleys winding between pleasant shading woods, the gently flowing river gliding among the whispering reeds and reflecting light clouds which sailed across the sky under the mild evening breeze; when I listened to the birds that bring the forest to life, while millions of midges danced in the red rays of a setting sun whose last flare roused the buzzing beetle from the grass; and all the whirring and weaving around me drew my attention to the ground underfoot where the moss, which wrests it nourishment from my hard rock, and the broom plant, which grows on the slope of the arid sand hill, revealed to me the inner, glowing, sacred life of Nature - how fervently did I take all this into my warm heart, feeling like a god in the overflowing abundance, while the beautiful forms of the infinite universe stirred and inspired my soul....
"....
"It is as if a curtain has been drawn away from my soul, and the scene of unending life is transformed before my eyes into the pit of the forever-open grave. Can you say: 'This is!' when everything passes, everything rolls past with the speed of lightning and so rarely exhausts the whole power of it existence, alas, before it is swept away by the current, drowned and smashed on the rocks? There is not one moment which does not consume you and yours, and not one moment when you yourself are not inevitably destructive; the most harmless walk costs the lives of thousands of poor, minute worms; one step of your foot annihilates the painstaking constructions of ants, and stamps a small world into its ignominious grave. Ha! It is not the notable catastrophes of the world, the floods that wash away our villages, the earthquakes that swallow up our town which move me; my heart is instead worn out by the consuming power latent in the whole of Nature which has formed nothing that will not destroy its neighbour and itself. So I stagger with anxiety, Heaven and Earth and their weaving powers around me! I see nothing but an eternally devouring and ruminating monster."
May 20, 2011
this was recommended to me by a friend who jokingly complains about how emo i am (she only says that because i like drama and the cw...). it's not something that i would have picked up on my own, but is something that i'm glad to have read.
goethe's writing is incredibly readable and descriptive (or rather, the translation was). he envelops the reader into werther's world, where you feel what he feels and see what he sees. goethe has an incredible talent in making the reader forget that s/he is reading. this is a complex character-study; one that often had me frustrated with werther; he seemed so masochistic in his insistence of seeing lotte so often (why would you allow yourself to get so attached when you know she's engaged to another man?). of course, she is to blame as well for continuing the relationship. this tale of an all-consuming unhealthy obsession is disturbingly beautiful in its ending and has put goethe on my radar.
goethe's writing is incredibly readable and descriptive (or rather, the translation was). he envelops the reader into werther's world, where you feel what he feels and see what he sees. goethe has an incredible talent in making the reader forget that s/he is reading. this is a complex character-study; one that often had me frustrated with werther; he seemed so masochistic in his insistence of seeing lotte so often (why would you allow yourself to get so attached when you know she's engaged to another man?). of course, she is to blame as well for continuing the relationship. this tale of an all-consuming unhealthy obsession is disturbingly beautiful in its ending and has put goethe on my radar.
April 27, 2012
Not the book I expected: far more enjoyable, and oddly modern in the variety of forms combined without notice, letters to his friend, diary entries, and an outside voice coming in at the end. It's somewhat unsettling to reflect that the book's readers seem to have taken the situation recounted more seriously than the author did.
Now to re-read Lotte in Weimar, which will mean a lot more.
Now to re-read Lotte in Weimar, which will mean a lot more.
January 14, 2018
Werther is an illustration of pure emotionalism, and his complete disregard for any rationality is his downfall.
It took me years to finish this book because the intense, self-absorbed emotional wallowing of the main character annoyed me so much. I don't particularly enjoy the Romantic movement in literature, but even so when I picked this book up the second time I was better able to appreciate what the author was trying to convey.
It took me years to finish this book because the intense, self-absorbed emotional wallowing of the main character annoyed me so much. I don't particularly enjoy the Romantic movement in literature, but even so when I picked this book up the second time I was better able to appreciate what the author was trying to convey.
May 27, 2017
Such a depressing force in literature. Characters didn’t grow on me and I have so many questions on their actions and nature, but I won’t dwell on them; I don’t think there’s a point in doing so. It doesn’t leave a happy impression, seeing how long it took me to pick up and finish this when it has less than 200 pages.
December 4, 2020
A fascinating, rich, and tumultuous epistolary novel. Though it might seem excessively impassioned by today’s aesthetic standards, this is nonetheless an engrossing and rewarding work that, like strange views from out-of-the-way windows, offers brief glimpses of brilliance and originality upon a world for excess commentary all-too-often cast as fatigued.
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December 23, 2013This one didn't age well. The Ossian material, in particular, is absurd.
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