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Die Leiden des jungen Werthers
1024 pages
A feverish, intimate plunge into the beautiful and terrifying depths of an all-consuming, doomed obsession.
What it feels like
Reading this foundational text of the Romantic movement feels like trespassing into the private diary of a brilliant, unraveling mind. The narrative unfolds at a steady, deliberate pace through breathless letters, drawing you into a world where every emotion is magnified to a fever pitch. At first, the atmosphere is sunlit and pastoral, brimming with youthful idealism and the intoxicating rush of new love. But as the obsession deepens, the mood turns claustrophobic and deeply melancholic, mirroring the protagonist's tragic descent. The prose is lush, poetic, and unapologetically melodramatic, capturing the raw agony of a heart that feels too much. It is a perfect, devastating read for anyone who appreciates intense psychological portraits and the dark, destructive power of unrequited passion.
- Mood
- feverish
- melancholic
- claustrophobic
- romantic
- Tone
- confessional
- passionate
- melodramatic
- earnest
- despairing
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- unrequited love · alienation from society · the agony of youth · destructive passion · nature as emotional mirror
- The writing
- Lush, breathless, and intensely introspective, pouring out in a torrent of intimate letters.
- The arc
- Begins with the euphoric, sun-drenched heights of new infatuation and spirals inevitably into suffocating, tragic despair.
- Who it's for
- Lovers of classic Romanticism and readers who crave unapologetically intense, psychologically raw explorations of heartbreak.
Content notes
- suicide
- depression
- obsessive behavior
- mental illness
About the book
The translation, wrongly attributed to Richard Graves, was probably made by Daniel Malthus from the French version of Georges Deyverdun. Cf. Die erste englische Ausgabe des "Werther." Jahrbuch der Sammlung Kippenberg V (1925): p. 13ff.
Date of publication on title page of v. 2 corrected to M,DCC,LXXXIX.
Signatures: [A]℗ø B-Eþ́ ́℗ø Fþ́ 2E-2Fœ́ G-Rœ́ Sþ́ (S4 verso blank)
Errors in paging: v. 1, p. 68 and v. 2, p. 81, misnumbered 36 and 61.
Trumbull, J.H. Connecticut, 2188.
Trumbull, J.H. Connecticut, 2189.
Microfiche. [New York: Readex Microprint, 1985] 11 x 15 cm. (Early American imprints. First series; no. 21859)
Description from Open Library.
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