'I have so much and my feeling for her devours everything, I have so much and without her everything is nothing.'

The Sorrows of Young Werther propelled Goethe to instant fame when it first appeared in 1774. Goethe's story of a sensitive young artist--an alienated youth of searching introspection and passionate intensity--captured the Romantic sensibility of the day and led to a wave of imitations. Translated by the award-winning author David Constantine, this new edition captures the novel's lyric clarity and powerful immediacy. In addition, Constantine's critical introduction sheds light on the autobiographical background, the novel's epistolary form and structure, and Werther's reception and afterlife. The explanatory notes illuminate contemporary allusions, literary references, and the parallels with Goethe's life.

Goethe's story of a sensitive young artist alienated from society channelled the Romantic sensibility of the day and led to a wave of imitations. Werther's searching introspection and the passionate intensity with which he bares his soul have an immediacy that is all the more powerful for being expressed in letters; charting the course of his emotions, they give added drama to the unfolding account. David Constantine's new translation captures the novel's lyric clarity, and his introduction and notes illuminate Goethe's achievement.

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Features

• A new translation of the novel that made Goethe's name, the tragic account of a passionate infatuation, featuring the archetypal Romantic hero, that created a sensation on first publication.
• Translated with lyric precision and sensitivity by the award-winning author and poet, David Constantine.
• Critical introduction discusses the autobiographical background, the novel's epistolary form and structure, and the novel's reception and afterlife.
• Explanatory notes gloss contemporary allusions, literary references, and the autobiographical parallels.

ABOUT THE SERIES

For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Contents
Introduction
Note on the Translation
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Explanatory Notes
Footnotes

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Translated by David Constantine, a respected translator and poet, and the winner of the BBC National Short Story Award for 2010.

David Constantine is a poet, novelist, and short-story writer who taught German language and literature at Durham and then Queen's College, Oxford. His most recent poetry collection is Nine Fathoms Deep (2009), and his most recent volulme of short stories, The Shieling (2009).  He has translated Hölderlin, Goethe, Kleist, and Brecht: Goethe's Faust, Part 1 and Part 2 for Penguin and Elective Affinities for Oxford World's Classics. In 2010 he won the BBC National Short Story Award.  With his wife Helen he edits Modern Poetry in Translation.