Customer Reviews

The Sorrows of Young Werther

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How can anyone, especially a surly bully like me, presume to review one of the great monuments of European literature, one of the most influential pieces of fiction ever written? And what's worse, I didn't read this edition or even this translation! I dug out my forty-year-old German edition to re-read on a trip to Germany. If you can't read German, I strongly suggest looking at other reviews for guidance about the best translation, because this IS a book you ought to read and perhaps re-read, even if you find it mawkish and/or depressing. It's about a supremely narcissitic young puppy who falls foolishly in love with a maiden already pledged to a 'worthy' man; the puppy behaves atrociously and suffers himself into a suicidal depression. It's said the dozens of ardent puppies all over Europe were so enamoured of his romantic grief that the suicide rate rose appreciably.

So be it. Reading Werther again in my 'senescence' is like finding an old love note from a high school crush, a note never actually sent, in a yellowed volume of poetry; it's above all a poignant embarassment. Werther is an insufferable elitist, a shallower trifler than his creator, for which all German literature can be eternally grateful. In other words, if Werther is read as Goethe's self-portrayal, then Herr Goethe still had a lot to learn about himself when he wrote it. What made Werther potent, what makes the book still worth reading, is the 'sensibility' it espoused: the romantic perception of nature expressed in startlingly simple and resonant language; the emphasis on aesthetic affect as the hallmark of the truly deep soul; the commitment to self-realization outside any and all conventions of propriety.

Whether that Goethean revolution of affect was a blessing or a curse to the following generations is far too large a question to trifle with in this picayune reviewing format.

This book served its purpose; I enjoyed reading it. However, I ordered the wrong edition for my purposes, but that was my fault. Perhaps be a little more clear on who the translator is for the book, especially for books with many different translations.