Den unge Werthers lidanden by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

June 8th, 2008

Den unge Werthers lidanden
(Die Leiden des jungen Werther)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
101 p.
(in Litteraturens Klassiker 10)

Almquist & Wiksell, 1969
(first published in 1774)

Back cover blurb:

none

My sister is a big fan of this novel. I can in all honesty not see how she can be. This is the most pretentious, stuck-up shit I have ever read (possibly, at least!). It is not the writing style of Goethe that I have issues with (I am, in fact, quite sympathetic to Goethe on account of reading a couple of nice poems written by him, though this might change a little now), but Werther! Out of all pathetic jerks in the work, one would assume it was impossible to be as stuck-up and pathetic as Werther manages to be. Oh, really - he is so awful that a lot of the time I wanted to throw up. Even when he was happy he complained! Also, some of the opinions he held (such as “suicide is as inevitable as dying from a fever”) made me see red.

I am not going to write anything else, or I will start sputtering all sorts of rude words. And it’s not worth that.

Entry Filed under: Classics, Fiction, Swedish