Oh to be young and in love, but to not have that love returned. Written by Goethe at age 24 in four short weeks, “The Sorrows of Young Werther” was based on his own unrequited love for a woman who was engaged to one of his friends. It’s a passionate tale of youth; I loved it.

Quotes:
On adulthood:
“That children do not know the reason of their desires, all the learned teachers and instructors agree. But that grownups too stumble like children on this earth, not knowing whence they come or whither they go, acting as little according to true purposes, being ruled like them by cakes and birch rods, no one likes to believe; yet to me it seems quite obvious.”

On choices:
“As everything in the world amounts after all to nothing to speak of, a person who drudges for the sake of others, for money or honors or what not, without following his own ambition, his own need, is always a fool.”

On genius:
“I myself have been drunk more than once; my passions have never been very far removed from madness, and yet I do not feel any remorse. For I have learned in my own way that all unusual people who have accomplished something great or seemingly impossible have always been proclaimed to be drunk or mad.”

On happiness:
“Ah, could I but lose myself in them! - I hurried here and there and came back, not having found what I hoped to find. Oh, it is the same with the distance as with the future! A vast, twilit whole lies before our soul; our emotions lose themselves in it as do our eyes, and we long to surrender our entire being and let ourselves sink into one great well of blissful feeling. Alas, when we approach, when There has become Here, everything is as it was before, and we are left with our poverty, our narrowness, while our soul thirsts for comfort that slipped away.
So the most restless vagabond yearns in the end for his native land, and finds in his poor hut, in the arms of his wife, in the circle of his children, and in his labor to support them all, the happiness he searched the wide world for in vain.”

“But whoever realizes in all humility what all this amounts to, who observes with what pleasure every prosperous citizen trims his little garden into a paradise, how patiently even the unfortunate man struggles along his road under the weight of his burden, and how all are eager to see the light of the sun a little longer – well, such a man remains calm and shapes his own world out of himself; and he, too, is happy because he is a human being. And then, however confined he may be, he still holds forever in his heart the sweet feeling of freedom, and knows that he can leave this prison whenever he likes.”

On love:
“Then I left her, after asking the favor of seeing her again that same day. She granted my request and I went. Since then, sun, moon, and stars may continue on their course; for me there is neither day nor night, and the entire universe about me has ceased to exist.”

“I have so much in me, and the feeling for her absorbs it all; I have so much, and without her it all comes to nothing.”

On transience:
“’…On the whole your friends respect you; you often make them happy, and it seems to your heart that it could not live without them; and yet – if you should go, if you should leave this circle, would they – how long would they feel the void which your loss will create in their destinies? how long?’ - Oh, how transitory is man, that even in the place where he finds real confirmation of his existence, where he makes the one true impress of his personality in the memories, in the souls of those he loves, that even there he must fade and vanish, and how soon!” ( )

"The Sorrows of Young Werther" is a very sad tale of a young man who falls in love with a girl who is already engaged to be married. Werther, whose emotions are very strong, has a difficult time coping with his feelings, and eventually commits suicide when he realizes that he can never have Lotte for his own. Goethe tells this tale with great feeling, and you are constantly aware of the up and down moods of Werther. I was told that when the story was originally published, young men actually committed suicide after reading it.
The "Novella" included in this book is also a heart touching tale of a princess who was in fear of being killed by a tiger while out riding. Her assistant kills the tiger, which it turns out was an escaped pet. The family that owned the tiger also has a lion that has escaped and they were able to show everyone how tame the lion was by sending in their young son to rescue him.
In both stories, Goethe has a great talent at not only describing people's feelings and emotions, but also allowing us to connect with the beauty of nature. ( )

Any other edition of this would rate five stars, but I am not keen on any of the Modern Library translations. ( )