Shabbat Reading: J. W. von Goethe's The Sufferings of Young Werther

#whatireadovershabbat J. W. von Goethe's The Sufferings of Young Werther (trans. Stanley Corngold)

When it first appeared in 1774, The Sufferings of Young Werther took the world by storm. Goethe’s novel so moved its readers that young men from Leipzig to London took to styling themselves after the title character. Reading it now, you can still see why. Through ill-fated love and self-inflicted trouble, Werther is vulnerable. He feels deeply and expresses himself in a surging torrent of language. He’s the actual definition of a hopeless romantic. You pity Werther, but two hundred plus years later, he remains a dynamo.