This week we leave the Middle Ages far behind and land squarely in the emotional whirlwind of Romanticism with Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther. Written in 1774 when Goethe was just twenty-five, the novel became what might be the first true worldwide bestseller—so influential that young men across Europe dressed like Werther, and suicides even spiked in imitation of his tragic end.

Werther himself is…a lot. His passion for Charlotte—who is engaged, then married, to another man—spirals into obsession. When he realizes life without her is unbearable, he stages an elaborate, melodramatic exit: visiting friends for final goodbyes, embracing Charlotte while they read Ossian together (a scene straight out of Inferno’s Francesca and Paolo), and then borrowing her husband’s pistols to kill himself. The ending is bleak, as it should be.

Goethe’s writing is wonderfully accessible, but Werther’s self-indulgent emotionalism reveals the contradictions of early Romanticism: exalting nature and feeling while refusing the grounding work of actual life. Still, this novel opens a door into the powerful reaction against Enlightenment rationalism—a door we’ll walk through next week with the Romantic poets. Things are about to accelerate.

LINK

Ted Gioia/The Honest Broker’s 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!)

My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link)

CONNECT

The complete list of Crack the Book Episodes: https://cheryldrury.substack.com/p/crack-the-book-start-here?r=u3t2r

To read more of my writing, visit my Substack -  https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com.

Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/ 

LISTEN

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bd

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321 

Captivate - https://crackthebook.captivate.fm