The Sorrows of Young Werther » (Unabridged)

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE (1749–1832) was a novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher, and scientist. He wrote The Sorrows of Young Werther when he was just twenty-four. His enduring dramatic poem "Faust" took fifty-seven years to write and was published in its entirety only after Goethe’s death at eighty-three.

BURTON PIKE is professor emeritus of comparative literature at CUNY Graduate Center. A leading critic, scholar, and translator of German literature, he has written and edited books on Robert Musil, Thomas Mann, and many others, and was the editor and co-translator of Musil’s The Man With-out Qualities.

The Sorrows of Young Werther is a loosely based autobiographical novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was first published in 1774 and is one of the most famous-and infamous-works in the history of literature.

Werther, a sensitive young man falls in love with Lotte, a sweet-natured girl he meets while visitng an idyllic German village. Although Lotte is betrothed to Albert, Werther's infatuation with her torments him to the point of despair and suicide. The book, consisting almost entirely of letters written by Werther to his friend Wilhelm, was an immediate success and developed a large cult following, resulting in copycat suicides.

Based on Goethe's unrequited love for Charlotte Buff, it is the first great "confessional" novel and turned Goethe into one of the first international literary celebrities.