The Sorrows of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This read-along is now finished, but you can catch up on our full conversation here.
I’m excited to announce the first of our monthly read-alongs.
This September marks the 250th anniversary of one of the most important publications in western literature: The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. This was the bestselling novel that made the literary reputation of Goethe, the greatest writer in the German language, and kick-started the Romantic movement across Europe. Goethe wrote it in six weeks at the age of twenty-four.
What is it?
It’s a tragic unrequited love story, told in letters written by Werther to his friend Wilhelm and based closely on Goethe’s own infatuation with Charlotte Buff as well as the parallel experience of his acquaintance Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem.
Why are we reading it now?
The Sorrows of Young Werther was first published in Leipzig on 29 September 1774. We will be marking its quarter millennial.
How will we read it?
The novel is short. It’s just over a 100 pages long and it’s divided into two ‘books’. I suggest we read it over two weeks:
We’ll start reading on Friday 13 September.
On Friday 20th we’ll discuss Book One.
On Friday 27th we’ll discuss Book Two.
Our posts and conversations will be collected here.
Which translation should I read?
There are a couple of translations available. I’ll be reading the Penguin edition, translated in 1989 by the poet Michael Hulse, because it’s the copy I’ve had since I was a teenager. The same edition (with a new cover) is still available from Penguin.
There is also a more recent edition available from Oxford World’s Classics, translated by David Constantine, another poet, in 2012 – and there are various older translations.
We can discuss the novel using the dates of the letters instead of page numbers, so it doesn’t matter which translation you choose to read.
What if I don’t want to read it?
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I enter this with both excitement and trepidation, because I have never read anything by Goethe (or even translated from German for that matter). But, I can’t resist a good classic, and I figured at 100 pages it can’t be that bad! Thank you making space to stretch into new spaces, and I look forward to the journey.
Goethe was not even in my universe until I stumbled upon your site. Sometimes a book knows who needs to read it next.