The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Heathen Edition)

The Sorrows of Young Werther

Spine #86
Author
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Translator
R. Dillon Boylan
First Edition
September 29, 1774
Heathen Edition
July 2025
Refreshed
Pages
148
Heathen Genera
Arriving Soon-ish, Existentialicious
Paperback ISBN
978-1-948316-86-6
Hardcover ISBN
978-1-963228-86-1

“I have often been told that my style of illustration borders a little on the absurd. But let us see if we cannot place the matter in another point of view, by inquiring what can be a man’s state of mind who resolves to free himself from the burden of life—a burden often so pleasant to bear—for we cannot otherwise reason fairly upon the subject.

“Human nature,” I continued, “has its limits. It is able to endure a certain degree of joy, sorrow, and pain, but becomes annihilated as soon as this measure is exceeded. The question, therefore, is, not whether a man is strong or weak, but whether he is able to endure the measure of his sufferings. The suffering may be moral or physical; and in my opinion it is just as absurd to call a man a coward who destroys himself, as to call a man a coward who dies of a malignant fever.”

“Paradox, all paradox!” exclaimed Albert.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was a German polymath widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language, whose wide-ranging influence as a poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, and critic persists on the Western world’s literary, political, and philosophical thought. In 1774, he published his first novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, a semi-autobiographical epistolary work — emphasis on pistol — that presents the confessions of the alienated and romantic Werther, who has fallen madly in love with Charlotte, who is to be married to Albert: a certainty that propels young Werther to an irrevocable conclusion. Considered the first great tragic masterpiece of European literature, Werther‘s youthful angst was catapulted to immediate success and lives on as relevant and heartbreaking as when it was first written.

“Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther is the prototypical cult novel of all time.”
Thomas Reed Whissen
Classic Cult Fiction