{"id":3651,"date":"2017-01-24T22:17:18","date_gmt":"2017-01-24T21:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=3651"},"modified":"2020-05-30T23:37:49","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T21:37:49","slug":"die-leiden-des-jungen-werther-johann-wolfgang-goethe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2017\/01\/the-sorrows-of-young-werther-johann-wolfgang-goethe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sorrows of Young Werther \u2022 Johann Wolfgang Goethe"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

German authors still have a hard time winning me over. To be fair, I was never truly tortured with dull German classics in school. Okay, that\u2019s not entirely true. I was tormented with Georg B\u00fcchner\u2019s Woyzeck<\/em>, which is why you\u2019ll never find a book by B\u00fcchner here or on my shelf. Beyond that, though, I was largely spared. Still, German classics just don\u2019t quite click with me. However, I can\u2019t resist picking up one of those big German heavyweights from time to time, and I\u2019ve rarely regretted it\u2014even if none has completely captivated me yet. Since Goethe hasn\u2019t really gotten his turn so far, and this Werther<\/em> is still pretty well known, I couldn\u2019t resist.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The story is really an old chestnut\u2014and probably was even in Goethe\u2019s time. At least he hints at that himself in the book. The young bourgeois law clerk Werther travels the countryside and meets the lovely Lotte, with whom he falls in love. The way Goethe describes her, she\u2019d still be an absolute knockout today. Naturally beautiful, with dark eyes, affectionate and family-oriented, she cares lovingly for her many siblings, whom she\u2019s raising as the eldest daughter in place of their deceased mother. She\u2019s sensitive, sings and plays beautifully, is sensual, graceful when dancing, and embodies the image of a true, nature-loving country beauty. No wonder Werther falls for her so quickly. The only hitch: she\u2019s already engaged. To make matters worse, her dying mother gave her blessing to the marriage, and Albert\u2014the chosen one\u2014is a genuinely decent man, leaving little to complain about. To spoil things properly: Werther suffers quite a bit in this story.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To lend the story authenticity, it\u2019s written as an epistolary novel. Werther writes shorter and longer letters to his friend Wilhelm. Toward the end, this letter form is interrupted and replaced by a brief omniscient narrative voice of a fictional editor\u2014a technique that authors like Dumas also used to make the story feel even more realistic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Stylistically, this novel is very poetic and a bit old-fashioned\u2014which, for a book published in 1774, isn\u2019t exactly surprising. I\u2019m used to newer translations, which tend to be linguistically smoother. In many places, I quite liked this, and Goethe often goes all in with his language.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cIn vain I stretch out my arms to her, mornings, when I wake from heavy dreams; in vain I seek her at night in my bed, when a happy, innocent dream has deceived me into thinking I sat beside her on the meadow, holding her hand and covering it with a thousand kisses. Ah, when I then, still half lost in sleep, reach out for her and wake to find her gone\u2014a flood of tears bursts from my oppressed heart, and I weep hopelessly toward a dark future.\u201d (p. 45)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Still, the book reads very well, and I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of nature. There are always classics where nature is interwoven with the story and the characters, clearly used as a stylistic device. That rarely goes wrong, and in this book I found it very enriching. The rustic, picturesque image of rural Germany came vividly to life before my mind\u2019s eye. Placing the perfect Lotte in such a setting has a powerful effect. Using the landscape and nature as a mirror\u2014or sometimes a contrast\u2014to Werther\u2019s inner life is something Goethe pulls off brilliantly, and it\u2019s truly a pleasure to read.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Sorrows of Young Werther<\/em> is classified as part of Sturm und Drang<\/em> (\u201cStorm and Stress\u201d), a literary movement during the Enlightenment. It\u2019s said to be the first German bestseller, stirring up quite a reaction and sparking controversy. Moving away from old moral conventions and rigid rationalism, the mostly young authors of Sturm und Drang<\/em> embraced emotion and nature\u2014and that freedom is clearly reflected in their works. These are elements clearly present in Goethe\u2019s Werther<\/em>, who himself is sensitive, loves and revels in nature, scorns the existing social hierarchies, and detests the careerism of the upper class. And, of course, he follows his heart\u2014which doesn\u2019t always end well, but has an authenticity all its own.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

At the time, in 1774, and for many decades afterward, this novel was quite a sensation and stirred up society. Viewed in isolation from today\u2019s perspective, however, it\u2019s pleasant and enjoyable to read but didn\u2019t strike me as a real knockout. The plot is quite familiar and offers little that\u2019s new or surprising. You could argue, of course, that it\u2019s an old book and has inspired and influenced countless later novels\u2014which is certainly true. But the fact that there are books from the same era that have truly gripped me is proven by Manon Lescaut<\/a> or Dangerous Liaisons<\/em> by Choderlos de Laclos. The latter, published in 1782, is also an epistolary novel and an absolute masterpiece\u2014exciting to the last page, provocative, full of fascinating characters, and surprisingly risqu\u00e9 for its time. In my opinion, Goethe\u2019s Werther<\/em> can\u2019t quite compete with such books. But then again, the French authors are hard to beat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For this edition, I once again chose the Hamburger Lesehefte<\/em> series. I just like these thin little booklets. They look old-fashioned and worn in a charming, nostalgic way. I\u2019ve already reviewed The Rider on the White Horse<\/a> by Theodor Storm from this series, and I found the format quite appealing even then. The booklets usually cost no more than two euros and are otherwise very minimalistic. I picked up a few from the series. The novels are mostly short and perfect for a quick read in between. The financial and time investment is low if you happen to choose a dud\u2014ideal for testing out new authors.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Conclusion:<\/strong> The first bestseller in German literary history is still worth reading and entertaining today. While the story holds few surprises and feels somewhat familiar, the poetic language, the beautiful setting, and the glimpse into a long-gone era make for a thoroughly enjoyable, if brief, reading experience. The novel didn\u2019t leave a lasting impression on me, but the Hamburger Lesehefte<\/em> edition, with its old-fashioned charm and low price, is definitely a recommendation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Book information:<\/strong> The Sorrows of Young Werther<\/em> \u2022 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe \u2022 Hamburger Lesehefte<\/em> \u2022 120 pages<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

German authors still have a hard time winning me over. To be fair, I was never truly tortured with dull German classics in school. Okay, that\u2019s not entirely true. I was tormented with Georg B\u00fcchner\u2019s Woyzeck, which is why you\u2019ll never find a book by B\u00fcchner here or on my shelf. Beyond that, though, I … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Sorrows of Young Werther \u2022 Johann Wolfgang Goethe”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Die Leiden des jungen Werther \u2022 Johann Wolfgang Goethe - lesestunden","description":"Noch immer haben die deutschen Autoren einen schweren Stand bei mir. Eigentlich wurde ich in der Schule ja nie so richtig mit schn\u00f6den deutschen Klassikern gequ"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,20],"tags":[122],"class_list":["post-3651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classics","category-reviews","tag-johann-wolfgang-goethe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/werther_beitrag_2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}