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The tradition of the German novel, before the emergence of its 'classic' writers in the first half of the twentieth century (Thomas Mann, Kafka, Hesse, Musil), does not have an assured place in the canon of European literature. Not that it has wanted for spirited advocates; but, despite all efforts, it has remained firmly on the periphery. The one signal exception is Goethe's novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers usually rendered as 'The Sorrows of Young Werther'. Werther was an extraordinary and immediate bestseller both in Germany and abroad.
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Landmarks of world literature Goethe THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER Landmarks of world literature General Editor: J. P. Stern Dickens: Bleak House - Graham Storey Homer: The Iliad - Michael Silk Dante: The Divine Comedy - Robin Kirkpatrick Rousseau: Confessions - Peter France Goethe: Faust. Part One - Nicholas Boyle Woolf: The Waves - Eric Warner Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther - Martin Swales Constant: Adolphe - Dennis Wood Balzac: Old Goriot - David Bellos Mann: Buddenbrooks - Hugh Ridley Garcia Marquez: 100 Years of Solitude - Michael Wood Homer: The Odyssey - Jasper Griffin Tolstoy: Anna Karenina - Anthony Thorlby Conrad: Nostromo - Ian Watt Camus: The Stranger - Patrick McCarthy GOETHE The Sorrows of Young Werther MARTIN SWALES Department of German, University College, London The right of the University of Cambridge to print and sell all manner of books was granted by Henry VIII in 1534. The University has printed and published continuously since 1584. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge New York New Rochelle Melbourne Sydney CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www. Cambridge. org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521328180 © Cambridge University Press 1987 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1987 Re-issued in this digitally printed version 2008 A catalogue recordfor this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Swales, Martin. Goethe: the sorrows of young Werther. (Landmarks of world literature) Bibliography. 1. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832. Werther. I. Title. II. Series. PT1980.S93 1987 833'.6 87-11757 ISBN 978-0-521-32818-0 hardback ISBN 978-0-521-31699-6 paperback Contents Preface Chronology 1 page vii viii Werther in context (a) Territories and nationhood (b) The culture of inwardness (c) The novel and its readership 1 6 8 2 The Sorrows of Young Werther (a) One version or two? (b) Werther the writer (c) Werther as a psychological study (d) Werther and society (e) Recounting and reflecting (f) The truthful discourse (g) The editor (h) The reception of Werther 15 23 29 49 58 66 79 86 3 Conclusion: Werther and tragedy? 111 Guide to further reading 113 Preface The tradition of the German novel, before the emergence of its 'classic' writers in thefirsthalf of the twentieth century (Thomas Mann, Kafka, Hesse, Musil), does not have an assured place in the canon of European literature. Not that it has wanted for spirited advocates; but, despite all efforts, it has remained firmly on the periphery. The one signal exception is Goethe's novel Die Leiden desjungen Werthers (as the title was given in the first edition) or (as most subsequent printings have it) Die Leiden