The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings

Young Werther, a sensitive and passionate artist, arrives in a country town and falls hopelessly in love with Lotte, a warm, capable young woman already engaged to the steady, decent Albert. Told almost entirely through Werther's own letters, the novel traces the rise and ruin of a feeling he cannot master: his joy in Lotte's company, his torment at her marriage, and his slow slide from rapture into despair.

Goethe's slim epistolary novel made him famous across Europe overnight and helped define the Romantic sensibility — the cult of intense feeling, nature, and the suffering individual. More than two centuries on, The Sorrows of Young Werther remains a raw, intimate portrait of unrequited love and a mind coming apart.