Portal:The Sorrows of Young Werther

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The Sorrows of Young Werther

The Sorrows of Young Werther (German: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) is a 1774 novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe's first major success, it turned him into a celebrity practically overnight, kicking off Werther fever, in which young men throughout Europe would dress in Werther's signature yellow pants and blue jacket. There were also cases of young men committing suicide in the fashion that Werther does in the novel; hence the term Werther effect for a spate of copycat suicides following the suicide of a celebrity.

The novel itself[edit]

Related works by Goethe[edit]

  • From "The Sorrows of Young Werther", a poem prefixed to the second edition
  • To Werther, a poem written by Goethe in his old age, and appended to an edition of The Sorrows of Young Werther issued at the time
  • Celebrity, a poem that satirises the Werther character's celebrity.

Related works by others[edit]

Works about the work[edit]