The Sorrows of Young Werther

The Sorrows of Young Werther

Title: The Sorrows of Young Werther
Author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Release: 2016-07-28
Kind: audiobook
Genre: Classics
Preview Intro
1
The Sorrows of Young Werther Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Werther, a sensitive young artist, finds himself in Wahlheim, a quiet, attractive village in Germany where he seeks solace from the turmoils of love. It is a young spring, and he hopes that arcadian solitude will prove a genial balm to his mind. But his romantic tendency rules otherwise, and he falls in love with Charlotte - Lotte - even though he knows she is affianced to another.

In a series of letters to his friend, Wilhelm, he charts the course of his love, which rises to passion and obsession and, ultimately, tragedy.

The Sorrows of Young Werther is the iconic love story which helped to usher in the Romantic age. Partially autobiographical, von Goethe, aged just 24, wrote it in just six weeks, and when it appeared in 1774 it immediately established his reputation. Told through the protagonist's eyes, it is the gradual rise of Werther's strong feelings checked by attempts at restraint and complicated by a friendship with Lotte's husband that keeps the listener on edge - especially when read with sympathy, as here, by Leighton Pugh.

Translated by R. D. Boylan; revised by Leighton Pugh.

More from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Friedrich Schiller, Johann Peter Hebel, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Friedo Lampe, Arthur Schnitzler, Thomas Mann & Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe & Stanley Corngold (translator)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller & Friedrich Hölderlin
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe & R. D. Boylan - translator
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff & Gottfried Keller
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe & Albrecht Koschorke
Till Hagen, Marcus Agrippa & Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Hans Christian Andersen, Carl Gustav Carus & Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Anne Bradstreet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Alice Meynell & Janet Hamilton
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Friedrich Nietzsche, Friedrich Schiller, Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Kurt Tucholsky, Rainer Maria Rilke & Wilhelm Busch