The Sufferings of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Stanley Corngold
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“Napoleon was an admirer in particular of the most widely read of Goethe’s four novels: The Sufferings of Young Werther (1774). This is a novel that comes out of and transforms the epistolary sentimental novel tradition. Goethe comes along and writes an incredibly thin and powerful novel. It’s just one writer sending letters of vibrant intimacy that take his character through a failed love into suicide. Napoleon was gripped by that; I think he claimed to have read it thirteen times.” Read more...
David E. Wellbery, Literary Scholar
