The Sorrows of Young Werther Paperback – 30 Aug. 2013

This book is beautiful and tragic.It follows a kind natured man's journey into the depths of despair. I became so emotionally involved that I actively tried to slow my reading to delay the heartbreaking conclusion.I cannot recommend enough!

This is a tragic love story told (mainly) by a series of letters that a young artist, Werther, has written to his friend, Wilhelm, whilst he is staying in the fictional village of Wahlheim. During his stay Werther meets Charlotte, a young woman who is caring for her father and younger siblings following the death of her mother. Werther is immediately enchanted with Charlotte and spends a great deal of time with her and her family, playing with her brothers and sisters and developing a mutual fondness with the family. Unfortunately, Charlotte is already engaged to another man, Albert, who Werther also befriends and there is a mutual respect between them.Werther knows his love for Charlotte will be unrequited and that her heart belongs to Albert so takes Wilhelm's advise and gets himself a job and moves away and catches the eye of another young lady. Things don't work out for Werther - he commits a social faux-pas in front of his new lady and isn't really cut out for his desk job so he returns to Wahlheim and Charlotte.Werther continues to torture himself over Charlotte. Charlotte's role is interesting as she adores Werther and works very hard at not falling in love with him. By now she is married and her loyalties lie solely with her husband and she knows that she must see less of Werther. Werther decides that the only solution to this love triangle is for one of them to die, knowing that he is not a murderer he resolves to end his own life and to wait for Charlotte in the afterlife.This book is a lovely read, beautifully told and achingly heartbreaking. When it was published it caused quite a stir with young men emulating Werther's fashion sense and some heartbroken young men following Werther to an early grave. Reading this as a cynical 30-something I see this as a tragic waste of a young life. I'm screaming at Werther to keep away from Charlotte, to stop torturing himself knowing that he is a young man and will fall in love with someone else if he lets himself. His friend, Wilhelm, can see this too. He tries to persuade Werther to get a job, to keep himself busy, to move away but Werther always returns to Charlotte. Wilhelm can see that Werther is in a fragile state of mind and wants to go to him but Werther persuades him to stay away. Perhaps if his friend had got to him sooner the ending would have been different...

Who wouldn't be delighted to find the public domain list of FREE classic literature. This is fantastic. All the titles I've always wanted to read and for free - this is my kind of kindle heaven. I love the way they arrive on your kindle, they're so quick, it's like magic. Thank you public domain!

Is this really a work of genius as has traditionally been proclaimed? I think it is very well crafted, bit by bit showing the state of mind of a young man ever more lost in romantic notions. The trouble with it is, it's so ridiculously over-the-top and becomes so devoid of any real love, other than a self-centred egotism that I think the only way it can really be called great literature is if it was intended in part as a parody and satire. Yet it seems to have been written in all earnestness.I'm reminded of Keats, another twenty-something Romantic writer with great potential, but who only ever really wrote teenage emotion, albeit elegantly. In Goethe's novel, Werther is such an idiot really, and there are such obvious flaws and unbalanced self-regard in his logic, whether talking about suicide, or love, or God - that if this was intended as serious literary reflection it's quite pathetic. (Spoiler) As an insight into the unbalanced mind of someone who kills themselves it is very good; as literature with anything worthy to say it is useless.I haven't read his other works, and perhaps this is just his 'young' novel and not the reason for all the 'Goethe Institutes' that were spread around the world. I hope his later works had something deeper to say about life and love.

A beautiful novel about love and human emotions. The translation is brilliant. Definitely recommended.

Surely most of the great modernist existential novelists from Kafka through Thomas Mann to Camus must have been influenced by Goethe

The ending is missing.

While this is surprisingly easy to read given when it was first written, probably thanks to the fact that the story is told through letters between friends rather than narration as things happen giving Goethe the chance to write in a far less formal fashion. The events take place over the course of a year or so and follow Werther as he falls desperately in love with Charlotte, who, of course, is engaged to another with no intention of changing her mind. This devastates Werther, who finds himself increasingly unable to cope and ends up taking extreme measures. While I did enjoy the style of this and the way each of the characters was portrayed, I did just want to grab Werther and give him a damn good shake. His complete loss of perspective was charming at first but quickly grew tiresome as he re-arranged his entire life because of his obsessive love. A very interesting read which is surprisingly dark and disturbing.