Die Leiden des Jungen Werther, an
epistolary novel by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, written in
1774.
The novel consists of letters written by an
impressionable young artist (Werther) who is hopelessly and
pathetically in love with a friend's wife. In the end, he commits
suicide by borrowing the friend's pistols, and shooting himself in the head.
The novel is part
autobiography, as the young Goethe went through a similar love situation, with one
salient difference: Goethe did not blow his brains out.
Werther is the
type specimen of the German
Sturm und Drang movement. This type of artist relies solely on his
sensibilities and feelings, in a reaction against the
Enlightenment cult of reason in which he was brought up. The ultimate triumph of feeling over reason is manifested in the artist's suicide, since he determines life is unliveable if he cannot obtain the sole object of his
passion (the friend's wife).
The novel was a huge success, inspiring many
copycat Werthers, and for a time, quite a few young European men were shooting themselves in the head, while wearing Werther's trademark blue coat and yellow vest.
Napoleon is said to have carried a copy of Werther in his pocket throughout his
Egyptian campaign. And strangely,
Mary Shelley wrote that Werther was one of the three books
Frankenstein's monster used to educate himself (the others being
Plutarch's Lives and
Milton's Paradise Lost).