The Sorrows of Young Werther
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • 1774
Devastation Rating
love loss literary fiction historical grief
Our Take
The first great romantic suicide, and Goethe writes Werther's love and despair with such completeness that the novel caused copycat deaths across Europe. The passion is real. The hopelessness is real. What Goethe understood was that the most dangerous thing a person can do is feel everything fully.
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