The Sorrows of Young Werther (Modern Library Classics) by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Sorrows of Young Werther (Modern Library Classics)
Book Review: About love, despair and the responsability of litterature
Summary: 4 Stars
Goethe's non-epic 1st novel, that made him famous was less thought provoking than Faust. It is seen as a milestone in litterature due to it being written when romanticism was about to hit Europe (it, among others, opened the door for it).
An impossible love triangle, the desperation of a young inactive bourgeois and how life's events, the world and his views of it lead to his inevitable suicide. A book that is difficult to fully understand in our cynical time without some input about the era's context.
Litterature history says this book led to the loss of many young ones. How scary is that fact. A long discussion of responsibility of the artist could be started from here.
It made you wonder : if reading methods could be taught in school so that the reader could choose to fully embrace the character's point of view, would that be a good thing ? Watching it from a distance, with detached interest seems the better option in this case ? What about the others ? Young desperate in-love people would probably find echo in their suffering were they to read this in the middle of a storm (but again, is it worth it ? isn't detachment a good thing ?). I didn't. Fortunately.
Book Review: Beautifully written portrait of an idiot
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't think I've been this annoyed by a main character since "The Catcher in the Rye." Werther is probably one of the most irritating, whiney characters in the history of literature. I never once felt an ounce of pity for this obsessive, creepy guy, and I can understand completely why the girl pushes him away. A very unattractive personality, and I don't know what was going on at the time to make readers swoon for his "sorrows." I kept waiting for him to finally shoot himself, and when he did my feeling was, "thank god." That said, it is superbly written, and it does belong in any list of classic books. Even though the writing is beautiful, I still could not care about Werther, and I hope that today's readers aren't inspired to glory in self-pity the way Werther does.Book Review: Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
A masterpiece of Teenage Angst. If you are young, read this to educate yourself at how complicated your emotions really are. Much in the way Russian novelists create their characters, Goethe does the same, but with German flair.Book Review: Obsession versus Love
Summary: 5 Stars
I went into this book knowing virtually nothing about it. I remembered a vague reference to it from reading Frankenstein last year (the monster discovers and reads this book and relates strongly to Werther) but beyond that, and the general "sorrow" of the central character, I hopped in blind.
The book is written in epistolary style with each letter being sent from Werther to his friend Wilhelm (a couple of the letters seemed addressed to his brother as well?). We never read any responses written to Werther but can sometimes infer the reactions from Wilhelm. Still, the core of the story is told in Werther's letters themselves.
Because of the epistolary style, the narrative is a little 'jumpy' as it skips over time in between letters...sometimes a day or two, sometimes weeks or more. Some of the letters are very lengthy and pour out large segments of plot and action. Others are very short segments of exclamation or emotion. Sometimes even the longer letters don't advance the "plot" so much as provide insight into the thoughts and emotions of Werther.
Through the letters, we follow Werther as he moves to the country and encounters a young girl named Lotte. He is immediately transfixed by her and professes undying love. She coyly allows his advances and it seems as though a romance may appear between them. Quickly we learn that Lotte is betrothed to another man named Albert. Werther is taken aback by this, but still persists in being close to Lotte with the hope of perhaps persuading her to love him. When the time comes, Lotte does marry Albert, much to Werther's dismay, but the three of them remain friendly. Werther visits them frequently and seems to hover incessantly over Lotte. He grows more and more jealous of Albert, which creates some tension in the group and Albert begins to leave the room when Werther comes to visit.
Werther's obsession with Lotte grows more and more intense as time goes on. He battles with himself over the emotions he feels and writes his friend for advice, although it is very clear that Werther does not feel able to (nor does he desire to) make a break from Lotte and strive to love another. He does finally move away from Lotte and spends some time trying to move on with his life. He becomes more and more discontent in his work and more and more obsessed with returning to her.
He finally does move back to live by them again. Albert is more offstandish and put off by Werther's presence. Werther continues to be insistent in his own mind (and sometimes to Lotte or Wilhelm) that there must be a way for her to love him. At the same time, he is emotionally conflicted because he knows she "belongs" to another man and he does not feel it is right to try and take her from him. She eventually tells Werther that he needs to stop coming around so often (he'd been visiting almost daily) but says that he's still a friend and should come by for Christmas as she's made him a gift.
__*** SPOILER ***__
Shortly after (the day after) Lotte tells Werther to back off a bit, he finds Lotte alone one night and again professes his love and pushes on her and kisses her passionately. She forces him off and tells him how wrong he's behaving. He's again in turmoil but does leave, though he announces (somewhat veiled) that she won't see him again...ever. He returns home and writes a few more notes in preparation of his suicide. He sends a note to Lotte and Albert to borrow their pistols for "a trip he's taking." Lotte realizes what's going on, but sends the pistols anyway. He shoots himself in the middle of the night and dies the next morning. He's buried without clergy, graveyard or cemetery.
__*** END SPOILER ***__
The presentation of love versus obsession is very interesting here and is very well done. You get a very good sense of the turmoil that Werther's going through...of the pain he's feeling as well as the desire he has but cannot fulfill. After reading the book, I looked up some info on it and found that it is actually fairly autobiographical. Apparently Goethe fell in love with his own Lotte who refused him and married another. He was obsessed for some time and found it hard to work or concentrate. There was a quote I read where Goethe indicates that he actually used Werther (and particularly the ending) to save himself [Goethe].
The story itself is intriguing though not particularly entrancing. It's really the presentation of the mental anguish of Werther that makes this noteworthy to me. Getting into his head and participating in the psychology of obsessive love was really interesting. A lot of his language was actually very romantic and, had it been spent on someone more receptive, could have been very powerful in enhancing a romantic relationship. Parts of the read were a bit slow, but overall, it was a good read.
****
4.5 out of 5 stars
Book Review: Plumbing the Depths of Insanity
Summary: 4 Stars
Ah, Werther. You live close to my heart, but your passion is your undoing. A great story, masterfully written.
I'm not sure about the translation. Friends of mine like other versions better, but I thought there were many beautifully written passages. So I guess you'll have to find out yourself.
Definitely a good read!
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