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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
Fantastic
"Why dost thou awake me, breath of spring? Thou wooest me, saying, 'I will bedew thee with the drops of heaven' But the time of wilting is bear, near the blast that will strip me of my leaves! Tomorrow the wanderer will come; he that saw me in my beauty will come; his eyes will seek me everywhere in the field, and will not find me...'" - Ossian
"Why dost thou awake me, breath of spring? Thou wooest me, saying, 'I will bedew thee with the drops of heaven' But the time of wilting is bear, near the blast that will strip me of my leaves! Tomorrow the wanderer will come; he that saw me in my beauty will come; his eyes will seek me everywhere in the field, and will not find me...'" - Ossian
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Translated Michael Hulse
Penguin, 1989
Originally published 1774
134 pages
Classic
3/5 stars
Source: Bought for class
Summary: A young man kills himself after being disappointed in love.
Thoughts: I thought this was so boring. I kept falling asleep while I was reading it. The most interesting part was the introduction which explained how part one of the book is based on a real-life experience for Goethe and part two is based on a case where a man killed himself for love.
I think I struggled against his ideal of female perfection, which includes a woman who is acting like a mother to her siblings after the death of their mother (reminded me of Bleak House) and just sounds really boring. The language was a bit too flowery and I didn't sympathize with Werther falling for a woman who clearly states that she is already involved with another man.
Overall: A short classic that you could read fairly quickly but not my taste at all!
Cover: This isn't my cover as I have an earlier Penguin edition but it fits.
Translated Michael Hulse
Penguin, 1989
Originally published 1774
134 pages
Classic
3/5 stars
Source: Bought for class
Summary: A young man kills himself after being disappointed in love.
Thoughts: I thought this was so boring. I kept falling asleep while I was reading it. The most interesting part was the introduction which explained how part one of the book is based on a real-life experience for Goethe and part two is based on a case where a man killed himself for love.
I think I struggled against his ideal of female perfection, which includes a woman who is acting like a mother to her siblings after the death of their mother (reminded me of Bleak House) and just sounds really boring. The language was a bit too flowery and I didn't sympathize with Werther falling for a woman who clearly states that she is already involved with another man.
Overall: A short classic that you could read fairly quickly but not my taste at all!
Cover: This isn't my cover as I have an earlier Penguin edition but it fits.
Before finishing this book, I was thinking I was not going to rate it too high. As Werther's unrequited love drove him to emotional, and then physical, extremes, I simply couldn't find him sympathetic. He was intelligent and well off, but his self-centered desire diminished him for me. But, I read quickly to the end and really enjoyed this short novel. I realized that the beauty of the book was its story, so well told by a then 24-year-old Goethe. Even though I didn't always like the titular character as a person, I wanted to know what he thought and how his story unfolded.
I must say I'm also a sucker for epistolary novels. I like seeing only through the words of the letter writer(s). It's like listening in on a conversation, but only hearing one side of it. There's so much you think about, like what the recipient thinks when reading it, as well as what was going on in the letter writer's mind vs. what they actually put on paper. And, to be honest, there's also the titillating feature of reading someone else's private correspondence, as if sneaking a peak at a letter left on a table or discretely reading over someone's shoulder.
The Sorrows of Young Werther is a book of moods. It looks deeply at relationships and also at nature. It is a Romantic book, the first I've read that wasn't originally written in English. I'm happy to have read it.
I must say I'm also a sucker for epistolary novels. I like seeing only through the words of the letter writer(s). It's like listening in on a conversation, but only hearing one side of it. There's so much you think about, like what the recipient thinks when reading it, as well as what was going on in the letter writer's mind vs. what they actually put on paper. And, to be honest, there's also the titillating feature of reading someone else's private correspondence, as if sneaking a peak at a letter left on a table or discretely reading over someone's shoulder.
The Sorrows of Young Werther is a book of moods. It looks deeply at relationships and also at nature. It is a Romantic book, the first I've read that wasn't originally written in English. I'm happy to have read it.
This is my second time reading Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther, and I really do enjoy the story. Maybe even more so this second time. Great flow of emotions, especially through the first part and most of the second.
I went with 3 stars for this review solely based on the translation, where sometimes more modern day phrases were used. One examples dealt with Werther contemplating suicide by talking about "blowing my brains out" (p. 51). In the 1850s translation by Thomas Carlyle and R.D. Boylan, it was rendered as "when I am ready to commit suicide" (p. 25 of Dover Thrift paperback edition). In Dr. Pratt's 1813 edition, it was "when the desponding soul meditates its own destruction." Now, the 1813 edition is simply too outdated for today, but the 1850s version, I think, is the best of the three.
I had 3 copies of Werther open while reading, and while it makes for slow going, for me, it was a joy to compare the different choices that each translator made, some of which expressed their current cultural mores. One instance of different choices (besides not explicitly referring to suicide in the 1813 edition) regards Werther pointing a pistol at his head. In the 1813 edition, it was unconsciously done, and not premeditated. In the 1850s and 1962 version, it was definitely an intentional act.
The translator's choices reminded me a little of my negative reaction to Stanley Lombardo's updated text for the Iliad and Odyssey. I can understand trying to make the text more accessible, but for me, there's also a meta-understanding that this is an older text and that some modern language doesn't fit with the experience. Then again, as I've said with other reviews, if this is what it takes to lasso in a younger, new reader, than perhaps that's what might be needed. Then, after they're hooked, they might be willing to explore the book more fully through other translations or the original.
For me, I will likely come back to Werther again.
I went with 3 stars for this review solely based on the translation, where sometimes more modern day phrases were used. One examples dealt with Werther contemplating suicide by talking about "blowing my brains out" (p. 51). In the 1850s translation by Thomas Carlyle and R.D. Boylan, it was rendered as "when I am ready to commit suicide" (p. 25 of Dover Thrift paperback edition). In Dr. Pratt's 1813 edition, it was "when the desponding soul meditates its own destruction." Now, the 1813 edition is simply too outdated for today, but the 1850s version, I think, is the best of the three.
I had 3 copies of Werther open while reading, and while it makes for slow going, for me, it was a joy to compare the different choices that each translator made, some of which expressed their current cultural mores. One instance of different choices (besides not explicitly referring to suicide in the 1813 edition) regards Werther pointing a pistol at his head. In the 1813 edition, it was unconsciously done, and not premeditated. In the 1850s and 1962 version, it was definitely an intentional act.
The translator's choices reminded me a little of my negative reaction to Stanley Lombardo's updated text for the Iliad and Odyssey. I can understand trying to make the text more accessible, but for me, there's also a meta-understanding that this is an older text and that some modern language doesn't fit with the experience. Then again, as I've said with other reviews, if this is what it takes to lasso in a younger, new reader, than perhaps that's what might be needed. Then, after they're hooked, they might be willing to explore the book more fully through other translations or the original.
For me, I will likely come back to Werther again.
4 stars
So glad that I finally read this book because it is one of the original Romantic texts and Romanticism is my favourite movement in literature and art in general. It was fascinating to see how all these books I have read been influenced by this one text and have they been built on the theme is presented here. On its own it stands as a story about the beautiful, melancholic, and destructive sides of love.
The age of industrialization is just around the corner it was no wonder that people wanted to escape into nature so much and go to times that were in many ways simpler and safer and slightly perhaps more pure. I find it interesting how engaging in "important" civilisation is treated frivolously in this novel by the main character and yet his relationships with people in the countryside are paramount. I imagine this resonated with many of the writers inspired by the novel because this theme is present in many other Romantic texts I've read.
All in all, I enjoyed exploring Werther as a character. The parts with the gun and the fake+real bullets, his want to release the mad man who killed his mistress so no one else could love her, and his approach to suicide being a death by feelings were provocative and I'd love to discuss them in an academic setting. I highly recommend, but perhaps not as an introduction to the time-period.
“I am proud of my heart alone, it is the sole source of everything, all our strength, happiness and misery. All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own”
So glad that I finally read this book because it is one of the original Romantic texts and Romanticism is my favourite movement in literature and art in general. It was fascinating to see how all these books I have read been influenced by this one text and have they been built on the theme is presented here. On its own it stands as a story about the beautiful, melancholic, and destructive sides of love.
The age of industrialization is just around the corner it was no wonder that people wanted to escape into nature so much and go to times that were in many ways simpler and safer and slightly perhaps more pure. I find it interesting how engaging in "important" civilisation is treated frivolously in this novel by the main character and yet his relationships with people in the countryside are paramount. I imagine this resonated with many of the writers inspired by the novel because this theme is present in many other Romantic texts I've read.
All in all, I enjoyed exploring Werther as a character. The parts with the gun and the fake+real bullets, his want to release the mad man who killed his mistress so no one else could love her, and his approach to suicide being a death by feelings were provocative and I'd love to discuss them in an academic setting. I highly recommend, but perhaps not as an introduction to the time-period.
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No