The Sorrows of Young Werther

Goethe was in his mid-twenties when he poured a season of frustrated love into this short novel told entirely in letters, and it made him famous across Europe almost overnight. The sensitive young artist Werther describes settling into a country village, meeting the warm and lively Lotte, and falling helplessly in love with her despite her engagement to the steady, decent Albert. With no way forward and no wish to compromise his feeling, Werther sinks slowly toward despair. The book set off a wave of imitation in dress and manner, and even a rash of copycat suicides that alarmed the authorities of the day. This free PDF and EPUB edition presents the classic story of Romantic longing.