The Sorrows of Young Werther

Chapter 1 Prologue

I have tried my best to collect these materials related to Werther, I believe you will have a good understanding of him after reading it, and I hope my efforts can be recognized by you.After you get to know Werther, you will definitely have sincere admiration for him, and his fate will also make you feel uneasy.

Maybe your kind heart is struggling with pain, maybe your pain has many similarities with his pain, if God did not give you a good friend, or because of personal reasons, you never got a bosom friend, then, Please allow me to venture to introduce this book to you, it will definitely become your good friend.

Goethe is the greatest poet, writer and thinker in German history, and one of the leaders of the European Enlightenment.He raised German literature to an unprecedented level. His representative work "Faust" is recognized as the four masterpieces of European literature along with Homer's epic poem, Dante's "Divine Comedy" and Shakespeare's "Hamlet".Due to his pivotal position in the history of European literature, Engels called him "the real Zeus on Olympia" in the field of literature and art.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in a wealthy family in Frankfurt in 1749. His father was a court advisor and his mother was the daughter of the mayor.Goethe received a good cultural education and artistic edification since he was a child. He could write poetry at the age of 8, and at the age of 10 he knew French, Latin, and Greek in addition to German, making him a leader among his peers.

At the age of 16, Goethe obeyed his father's wishes and entered the University of Leipzig to study law.But he was not interested in law, and spent most of his time teaching himself literature, painting, and natural science, and later began to write plays.

At the age of 19, Goethe was forced to leave university for health reasons.After a year of recuperation, he entered the University of Strasbourg to continue his studies.

Strasbourg is located on the border of Germany and France, where Goethe accepted the influence of Rousseau and at the same time got rid of the influence of German court literature and classicism, and created a batch of beautiful lyric poems, many of which have become famous. Still circulating.

After graduating from university, Goethe returned to his hometown and became a lawyer.But he did not give up literary creation. It was during that time that he completed his most important epistolary novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther".Werther is a young man with outstanding talent, enthusiasm and longing for freedom, but this is incompatible with the vulgar society at that time, so Werther fell into loneliness and depression.At this moment, he met the kind girl Lotte and fell in love with her deeply.But Lotte chose the former between ethics and love, which made Werther extremely sad and angry, and finally chose to commit suicide. "The Sorrows of Young Werther" reflected the troubles of the progressive youth in Germany at that time, so it aroused strong resonance as soon as it was published, and formed a "Werther fever" among young people, and some people even committed suicide by imitating Werther.In order to put an end to this negative effect, Goethe had to write a preface poem when the novel was republished, admonishing young people to "don't follow in Werther's footsteps".

In 1775, the famous Goethe was invited to the Duchy of Weimar and began to implement his political ambitions.For ten years, he successively served as a privy secretary, a privy minister, and finally a cabinet minister, presiding over the national government affairs.In the specific and trivial work, he came into contact with the real social reality, and he had a deeper understanding and practical grasp of the "hurricane" trend of thought in his early years and the enlightenment.

Goethe was a literati at heart. Although he carried out various reforms in a down-to-earth manner, he bumped into walls everywhere and achieved little. In 1786, he could no longer endure the compromised life, so he secretly fled Weimar and went to Italy.

In the new environment, Goethe relaxed his mind, "found himself", and became energetic and passionate again.Under the influence of classical culture, he began to pursue tranquility and harmony in his creation, and entered the period of "classicism" called by later literary historians.One of the greatest achievements of this period was the completion of some scenes of "Faust".This poetic drama was called by Goethe his "main career in life", and its creation process almost lasted Goethe's life until it came to an end in his later years.

"Faust" is colorful, magnificent in structure, and voluminous in volume. It perfectly integrates realism, romanticism and symbolism, and the blending of reason and passion fully reflects Goethe's artistic characteristics.

This book is a selection of two short stories by Goethe.Besides "The Sorrows of Young Werther," there is a lighter work, which tells a pleasant story.After reading the sad "troubles", it may be emotional to experience the pure and ignorant love.

(End of this chapter)