The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

Characters/People edit see section history

• Werther: Main character
• Lotte: Werther's beloved
• Albert: Lotte's fiancé
• Wilhelm: Add a description of this character.
• Wahlheim
• Armin
• Daura

Quotes edit see section history

• “Die meisten verarbeiten den größten Teil der Zeit, um zu leben, und das bisschen, das ihnen von Freiheit übrig bleibt, ängstigt sie so, dass sie alle Mittel aufsuchen, um es los zu werden.”

  Werther: 17. Mai 1771

• “Was ich weiß, kann jeder wissen. Mein Herz hab' ich allein.”

  Werther

• “Dagegen wenn wir mit all unserer Schwachheit und Mühseligkeit nur gerade fortarbeiten, so finden wir gar oft, dass wir mit unserem Schlendern und Lavieren es weiter bringen, als andere mit ihrem Segeln und Rudern - und - das ist doch ein wahres Gefühl seiner selbst, wenn man anderen gleich oder gar vorläuft.”

  Werther: 20. Oktober 1771

• “There would be far less suffering amongst mankind, if men -- and God knows why they are so fashioned -- did not employ their imaginations so assiduously in recalling the memory of past sorrow, instead of bearing their present lot with equanimity.”

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• “You are certainly wrong to compare suicide ... with great accomplishments, since it cannot be considered as anything but a weakness. After all, it is easier to die than to endure a harrowing life with fortitude.”

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• “All extraordinary men, who have accomplished great and astonishing actions, have ever been decried by the world as drunken or insane.”

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• “Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness.”

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• “When I consider the narrow limits within which our active and inquiring faculties are confined; when I see how all our energies are wasted in providing for mere necessities, which gain have no further end than to prolong a wretched existence; and then all our satisfaction concerning certain subjects of investigation ends in nothing better than a passing resigntion, whilst we amuse ourselves painting our prison walls with bright figures and brilliant landscapes, when I consider all this, Wilhelm, I am silent.”

• “A man under the influence of violent passion loses all power of reflection, and is regarded as intoxicated or insane.”

• “Must it ever be thus-- that the source of our happiness must also be the fountain of our misery.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• Most people work most of the time in order to live, and the little freedom they have left over frightens them so, that they will do anything to get rid of it. Oh, the regimentation of mankind!

  Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers

• Must it be, that what makes for man’s happiness becomes the source of his misery?

  Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers

• people would have fewer pains if—God knows why they are made this way—their imaginations were not so busily engaged in recalling past trials rather than bearing an indifferent present.

  Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers

• we should deal with children as God does with us, who makes us happiest when He lets us stagger on in benevolent delusion.

  Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers

• Everything in the world ends up being a dirty business, and a person who wears himself out for money or honor or whatever else for someone else’s sake, without its being his own passion, his own need, is always a fool.

  Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers

• Goethe regards our attempts to outsoar human limits as admirable but potentially destructive. However, outsoaring human limits is precisely the sphere of art, which is capable of weaving together the worlds of everyday life and of exalted feeling. Art—in this case not the sketches produced by Werther, the weak artist, but the novel written by the strong artist, Goethe—transcends the conflict between self and society, self and nature.

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• the happiest people are those who like children live for the day, drag their dolls around dressing and undressing them, and cautiously slink around the drawer where Mama has locked up the sweet cakes, and when they finally get their hands on what they want stuff their cheeks with it and shout “More!”—Those are happy creatures.

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• man is so transient that even where he is really certain of his existence, even where he makes the one true impression of his presence, in the memory, in the soul of his dear ones, even there must he disappear, be extinguished, and that so soon!

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• Of course, since we are so made that we compare everything with ourselves and ourselves with everything, happiness or misery lies in the objects we associate ourselves with, and in this there is nothing more dangerous than solitude.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• Thus the most restless vagabond longs at last for his home country and finds in his hut, on his spouse’s breast, in the circle of his children, in the tasks of supporting them the bliss that he sought in the wide world in vain.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by Robinson Crusoe, and followed by Candide.

Preceded by Evelina, and followed by The Expedition of Humphry Clinker.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Martin Swales
2. Burton Pike (Translator)
3. W. H. Auden (Translator)
4. Elizabeth Mayer (Translator)
5. Louise Bogan (Translator)
6. Marcelle Clements (Introduction)
7. Catherine Hutter (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 838'.6

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( G ) › Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics › German
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Foreign Language Fiction › German

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history