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A review by k3nnedy_writes
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
3.0
Full disclosure I am not fluent German speaker and I read this in German. This inevitably may have affected what I got out of the book.
Overall I enjoyed the prose and some of the descriptions, and some of the story was quite nice, but for me it just didn't feel like this beautifully tragic unrequited romance, and more of a story of a man who couldnt let go or respect boundaries. I do appreciate Lotte as a character; how she loves literature and seems well educated, how she cares for her family but wants something more, how she stands up for herself, and how in the end she goes from the object of Werther's affections to one of the perspectives we see from. But the values of this story are hard to hang onto when the protagonist is so unlikeable to me. I know this a classic book, that it influenced many others. I know much of my problems with the book are a product of time. But I can't make myself like it in the way I feel I should.
Overall I enjoyed the prose and some of the descriptions, and some of the story was quite nice, but for me it just didn't feel like this beautifully tragic unrequited romance, and more of a story of a man who couldnt let go or respect boundaries. I do appreciate Lotte as a character; how she loves literature and seems well educated, how she cares for her family but wants something more, how she stands up for herself, and how in the end she goes from the object of Werther's affections to one of the perspectives we see from. But the values of this story are hard to hang onto when the protagonist is so unlikeable to me. I know this a classic book, that it influenced many others. I know much of my problems with the book are a product of time. But I can't make myself like it in the way I feel I should.