bookmate game
Free
Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe

The Sorrows of Young Werther

“The Sorrows of Young Werther” was Goethe’s first major work, an immediate sensation upon publication, and made Goethe a household name.
While Voltaire parodied rationalism in “Candide”, Goethe transcended it with the semi-autobiographical story of Werther, a young man governed more by his emotions than his reason, whose only employment is his delight in the romantic ideals of the pastoral lives he finds in the rural town of Walheim. There he also finds Charlotte, and in her an idealized but unobtainable old-world domesticity. Werther’s internal dialog about his growing obsession with Charlotte, and his inability to cope rationally with the fact that she is engaged to—and in love with—another man, form the bulk of the book in the form of a series of ever more intense letters to a friend.
Werther’s descent into sorrow has captivated readers for centuries, helped by Goethe’s itensely beautiful prose (translated here by R. D. Boylan), enchanting imagery, and obvious reverence for nature and a dying past.
149 printed pages
Have you already read it? How did you like it?
👍👎

Impressions

  • Oliver Rodriguezshared an impression3 years ago
    🚀Unputdownable

Quotes

  • Sofía Escobarhas quoted3 years ago
    I sometimes cannot understand how she can love another, how she dares love another, when I love nothing in this world so completely, so devotedly, as I love her, when I know only her, and have no other possession.
  • Jennyhas quoted3 months ago
    I have possessed that heart, that noble soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was, because I was all that I could be.
  • Mikaelahas quotedlast year
    Often do I strive to allay the burning fever of my blood; and you have never witnessed anything so unsteady, so uncertain, as my heart.

On the bookshelves

fb2epub
Drag & drop your files (not more than 5 at once)