Description:
<jats:p>This paper is about “Werther and his Readers.” That includes contemporary readers of the novel, among them Johann Christian and Charlotte Kestner; it includes critics and scholars; and last but not least, it includes Lotte, the recipient of Werther's last letter, a letter which has been largely ignored in the criticism of Goethe's novel. I have taken a less positive view of Werther than most critics, by concentrating on Werther's asocial behavior, his aggressions, and on acts which can even be called “criminal.” This does not detract from Goethe's truly remarkable achievement in <jats:italic>Die Leiden des jungen Werthers</jats:italic>, it only adds another dimension. Instead of a novel of sentimentality, the novel becomes thereby a story of obsession and madness, a portrayal of the passions of illicit love. My discussion is based throughout on the first version of the novel published in 1774, which is, in some respects, artistically more successful than the revised version of 1787.</jats:p>