The Sorrows of Young Werther

What is The Sorrows of Young Werther about?

The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, 1774) is Goethe’s first major novel and one of the most influential works of European literature. Written in epistolary form as a series of letters from the young artist Werther, the novel tells the story of his consuming, hopeless love for Charlotte (Lotte), a woman engaged to another man. Werther’s passionate temperament—his intense sensitivity to nature, art, and human feeling—is both his gift and his destruction. As his love proves impossible, Werther spirals into despair that leads to his suicide. The novel was an international sensation upon publication, inspiring a wave of “Werther fever” across Europe—readers adopted Werther’s style of dress, and a rash of imitative suicides reportedly followed. The book launched the Sturm und Drang movement, pioneered the confessional novel, and established Goethe as Europe’s most famous young writer. Its exploration of the conflict between passion and social convention, individual feeling and rational order, remains as powerful today as when it scandalized eighteenth-century Europe.