Uh..really? There's a moment in this little book where Lotte (the female love interest) looks squarely at Werther and says "Be a man." That pretty much sums up my feelings about this book. The great thing about being a grown up is not being controlled by one's emotions. Plus I'm always bothered by romances that end that way- it makes light of real mental illness, I feel. I found out, interestingly enough, that Goethe later distanced himself from the work, saying it was horrible. Which it is. ( )

Kærlighedhistorie om den unge Werther der begår selvmord, fordi hans elskede er gift med en anden. Vildt skræmmende at bogen som udkom i 1774, igangsatte en regulær selmordsbølge blandt unge i europa. Så stor effekt kan ord have... Bogen er, fuldt forståeligt, stadig en klassiker i verdenslitteraturen. ( )

I find it hard to properly review a book that says ‘classics’ on the cover so I’ll only add that I liked reading about the destructive nature of passionate, one-sided love. It’s a perfect remedy to love can conquer all writing when you can see the pain and violence that often goes hand in hand with love. ( )

According the FT, the most popular book of the 17th centur.

1149 The Sufferings of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (read 9 Jan 1972) The translator, Harry Steinhauer, admits he has toned down much which'd strike the modern reader as maudlin--so I wonder if I'd prefer an older translation. But this translation sounds great to me. It is a novel in the form of letters, dated May 4, 1771, to Dec. 20, 1772. I was struck by Werther's discovery of Ossian: "What a world it is into which the glorious poet leads me! To wander over the heath, with the tempestuous winds roaring about you, carrying the spirits of your ancestors in steaming mists by the half light of the moon. To hear the dying groans of the spirits issue from their caves in the mountains, amid the roar of the brook in the forest, and the lamentations of the maiden, grieving her life away by the moss-covered, grass-over-grown stones on the tomb of her lover, nobly slain in battle...." To the question 'Why has Werther survived?' the answer is suggested: "it is incomparably superior to all its progeny. Despite its passages of intolerable sentimentality, it is richly endowed in its structure, psychological penetration, its fresh, vigorous imagery and diction..." ( )