The Sorrows of Young Werther

[Vota]

This is my first book, well, more like novella, review, and so I shall keep it short.

The Sorrows of Young Werther is a deeply moving story of an intelligent if overly sensitive young man that develops an unquenchable desire for a woman he can never have. Homer and Ossian reign supreme in their influence upon him. Nature in all her bounteous glory, and cruel, cold indifference makes her presence known throughout the work. Goethe seems to excel at creating wonderful imagery through nature analogies and to paint the perfect portrait of a mood or feeling through metaphor. The fascination and longing for death that the unfortunate protagonist feels is deep and moving, as well as philosophically engaging. Goethe did a fine job making me care for this character, as well as for the supporting cast. Overall, I think this is a powerful novella that I will read again one day, and a fine first serious acquaintance with the mighty German poet. Considering this is really the first work of his that garnered him renown, and keeping in mind he was only 24 years old when he wrote it, and it being partially autobiographical in nature, makes it all the more impressive imo. A glint forecasting the shimmering brilliance to come.

The novella was published in 1774!

P.S. If you can't tell, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[chevalierdelame]

I haven't read this book, but after reading your review I downloaded a copy.
I first came across it in Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'.
In the book 'In Search of Frankenstein' by Radu Florescu, it is mentioned that Goethe was a part a group called the 'Darmstadt Circle' established at Castle Frankenstein on the banks of the Rhine.
' ......one of the titles often read by the Darmstadt group was Goethe's 'Sorrows of Young Werther', a work which profoundly impressed Mary Shelley and is mentioned in 'Frankenstein'. (In Search of Frankestein pg90)

[Vota]

Very cool reference there!

[chevalierdelame]

I am glad that I read this.
It was so moving I had trouble holding back my tears.
Werther is every bit an artist, a poet whose poems are unwritten because he has lived them.
'I should be incapable of drawing a single stroke at the present moment; and yet I feel that I never was a greater artist than now.'

I never thought Goethe was so great an artist. Often great writers are not great artists. I think I'll go on to read his other works.
Thanks, Vota for your review.

[Sir Guyon]

Your review makes me want to re-read this novella. I have not read it since I was 19, and am now 27.

[Vota]

I'm glad you liked it. I read somewhere that he is often referred to as "the last universal man". He was a poet supreme, artist, scientist, philosopher, playwright, novelist and more. I've read parts of Faust and within a few pages the amount of wisdom and information that is being displayed is truly impressive. I think I'll read his Elective Affinities in the near future.

[jashleigh]

“The Sorrows of Young Mike” recently published as a parody of “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Goethe. I loved the aspects that were touched on in the updated version. John Zelazny, the writer of the parody, is in no way hiding from the original and makes this very clear. It is a marvelously done parody and takes on similar themes of class, religion and suicide. I love the way both books reflect on each other and think everyone interested in Werther should check out “The Sorrows of Young Mike.”

[NikolaiI]

For all of you who love Goethe, I would recommend highly Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. . . one of the best of a very short list of the best books I've ever read. :-)

It's somewhat similar in the sense that it's also semi-autobiographical, but the author's more evolved as a writer, and it's more mellow..

Since the quality of translation makes a huge difference, the one I read was by Erik K Blackall, it was volume 9 of Selected Works.

I also liked Burton Pike's version best for Werther..

One thing I'm very interested in reading is "The Joys of Young Werther," this one was written by Napoleon Bonaparte. It's said that Napoleon loved Goethe's novel a great deal, and carried it with him on his campaign to Russia, and he also wrote "The Joys" as a parody. It's pretty high on my list of books to read but I haven't gotten to it yet.

Has anyone read it?