The Sorrows of Young Werther brings to life an idyllic German village where a youth on vacation meets and falls for lovely Charlotte. The tragedy unfolds in the letters Werther writes to his friend about Charlotte’s charms, even after he realizes his love will remain unrequited. “Reflections on Werther” and “Goethe in Sesenheim,” collections of excerpts from the author’s own memoirs, reveal the genius who, as Nietzsche said, “disciplined himself into wholeness.” Next is “The New Melusina,”the delightful story of a pixie princess who assumes the form of a woman as she searches for a human mate. Finally, “The Fairy Tale” is a sophisticated but strange story in which the laws of nature and physics do not apply—mingled among its human characters is a cast of two sentient will-o’-the-wisps, a giant and his shadow, a talking green serpent, and four metal statues.
With an Introduction by Marcelle Clements
and a New Afterword
“Nature has endowed [Goethe] more generously than anyone since Shakespeare.”—Friedrich Schiller “[In] Werther, all the richness of [Goethe’s] gift was apparent….The extreme, nerve-shattering sensitivity of the little book…evoked a storm of applause which went beyond all bounds and fairly intoxicated the world.”—Thomas Mann
The Sorrows of Young Werther brings to life an idyllic German village where a youth on vacation meets and falls for lovely Charlotte. The tragedy unfolds in the letters Werther writes to his friend about Charlotte’s charms, even after he realizes his love will remain unrequited. “Reflections on Werther” and “Goethe in Sesenheim,” collections of excerpts from the author’s own memoirs, reveal the genius who, as Nietzsche said, “disciplined himself into wholeness.” Next is “The New Melusina,”the delightful story of a pixie princess who assumes the form of a woman as she searches for a human mate. Finally, “The Fairy Tale” is a sophisticated but strange story in which the laws of nature and physics do not apply—mingled among its human characters is a cast of two sentient will-o’-the-wisps, a giant and his shadow, a talking green serpent, and four metal statues.
With an Introduction by Marcelle Clements
and a New Afterword
Praise
“Nature has endowed [Goethe] more generously than anyone since Shakespeare.”—Friedrich Schiller “[In] Werther, all the richness of [Goethe’s] gift was apparent….The extreme, nerve-shattering sensitivity of the little book…evoked a storm of applause which went beyond all bounds and fairly intoxicated the world.”—Thomas Mann
