Monography profile

Goetheʼs epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, first published in 1774, has produced a global echo that rivals contemporary bestsellers. While in the German context, the book was always outshined by its famous author, patriotic writers in Italy and China saw their lives mirrored in Wertherʼs struggle, inspiring them to rewrite Goetheʼs novel in revolutionary terms. Meanwhile, French Romantics embraced Wertherʼs expressive language to explore the dark corners of their souls. The same happened in Japan, where modernists invoked the text to show that there lies beauty in death. In his book Lives and Deaths of Werther, Johannes Kaminski investigates how interpretations, translations, and literary adaptations of Goetheʼs novel have manipulated the text in ways that left deep marks on world literature.