Sorrows of Young Werther

#Germany #18thcentury #novel #romanticism

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Sorrows of Young Werther. (1774, Germany)

 

European romanticisms. Sentimental works like this novel served as a foundation for the realist novels of the nineteenth century. Epistolary form.

 

 

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II. Literary Genre: The Novel

1. What is the novel?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Sorrows of Young Werther. (1774, Germany)

Supporting References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorrows_of_Young_Werther
2. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2527
3. "the author's struggle to shed a troubled past often renders the novella far from sublime. Werther's letters become cloyingly introverted and selfish" http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/01/werther-goethe-david-constantine-review
4. http://www.gradesaver.com/the-sorrows-of-young-werther/study-guide/

5. "Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von The Sorrows of Young Werther" The Literature, Arts & Medicine Database New York University School of Medicine

http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1471

6. Baldick, Chris. "sentimental novel." The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. : Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference. 2008. Date Accessed 26 Aug. 2013 .

“sentimental novel (also called novel of sentiment or novel of sensibility). An emotionally extravagant novel of a kind that became popular in Europe in the late 18th century. Partly inspired by the emotional power of Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), the sentimental novels of the 1760s and 1770s exhibit the close connections between virtue and sensibility, in repeatedly tearful scenes; a character's feeling for the beauties of nature and for the griefs of others is taken as a sign of a pure heart. An excessively sentimental example is Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling (1771), but Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) and Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey (1768) are more ironic. In Europe, the most important sentimental novels were J.‐J. Rousseau's La Nouvelle Héloïse (1761) and J. W. von Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774; see wertherism). The fashion lingered on in the early Gothic novels of Ann Radcliffe in the 1790s. For a fuller account, consult R. F. Brissenden, Virtue in Distress (1974).”

7. "Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. Eds. Drabble, Margaret, Jenny Stringer, and Daniel Hahn. : Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference. 2007. Date Accessed 15 Aug. 2013 .

The article offers an overview of Goethe and less a discussion on the above-cited text.

“Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749–1832), spent most of his life in Weimar, occupying positions of increasing importance in the government until 1786. In 1791 he was appointed director of the Weimar court theatre, a post he held for many years.

“In the field of literature his most famous work was the poetic drama in two parts, Faust. His first important work was Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand (1773), a rough, exuberant play which excited Sir W. Scott, who translated it in 1799, and it was adapted for the English stage by J. Arden under the title Iron Hand (1965). Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774) is a semi‐autobiographical epistolary novel. Werther is a sensitive artist, ill at ease in society and hopelessly in love with Charlotte, who is engaged to someone else. This novel, with the eventual suicide of the hero, caused a sensation throughout Europe (see Wertherism). In 1786 Goethe visited Italy and returned with his ideas about art radically changed in favour of ‘classicism’ and cured of the Sturm und Drang tendencies of his early works. In 1787 appeared his drama Iphigenie auf Tauris based on Euripides, and in 1795 his Roman Elegies. Die Wahlverwandtschaften (Elective Affinities, 1809) is a remarkable exploration of love, marriage, and friendship, and the famous ‘Wilhelm Meister’ novels written between 1777 and 1829 are the prototype of the German Bildungsroman. In the first part, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795–6), translated into English by Carlyle in 1824, Goethe describes the disillusioning experiences of a stage‐struck youth as he travels the country. The sequel Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (Wilhelm Meister's Travels), also translated by Carlyle, completes Wilhelm's education. Many of Goethe's poems, as well as the songs from ‘Wilhelm Meister’, were set to music by German Romantic composers.

“Goethe's achievement in literature covers an astonishing range of forms. In Britain, Goethe exercised an enormous influence on Carlyle, who elevated him to the status of ‘the Wisest of our Time’ (Sartor Resartus). Through Carlyle a whole generation of Victorians turned their attention to Goethe, and eminent authors like G. Eliot and M. Arnold paid tribute to his genius both in essays on Goethe and in their creative works. G. H. Lewes wrote the first full biography of Goethe in any language (1855), a book he researched, with George Eliot's help, in Weimar in 1854. This biography is still one of the best introductions to Goethe for English readers.”