Good but wrong picture on the cover

I'm halfway through this now. I think it's probably one of my favourite novels, so the content's brilliant of course. The narration is good too, but there is one problem. The picture on the cover is actually of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. I guess it's meant to be Goethe and a mistake was made? It really should be corrected because it leaves a bad impression.

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Moving and excellent

The narration was brilliant and the story moving. My first Goethe novel and definitely worth reading.

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Disappointing

Well read, but I’m not sure this novel stands the test of time. Werther is overly sentimental, misguided and does not command the sympathy of the reader. He is overly emotional and lives in a fantasy world of his own making, bringing misery to the unfortunate Lotte, the object of his infatuation. Disappointing.

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Gratitude

I care more to review the publisher, Ukemi, than the book itself here. I continue to be most grateful for the extraordinary collection of quality audio Ukemi has provided. Leighton Pugh did a great job here and has narrated the other Goethe work published by Ukemi.

I would love to purchase Faust 1&2 and the second Wilhelm Meister from Ukemi with Leighton Pugh narrating.

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Werther is worth it!

This is from UKEMI AUDIOBOOKS which produces an expanding selection of important works of the past superbly read – a wonderful way of absorbing those important books and writers you’ve never had the time or space to read. It took Goethe just six weeks to write The Sorrows of Young Werther but its impact throughout Europe following its publication in 1774 – from blue frockcoat and yellow waistcoat outfits, to copycat displays of sublime displays of exaggerated sensibilities and the whole sturm und drang Romantic movement – was sensational enough for it to deserve another 21st century life as a download. Especially as intelligently read as this is.

The novel is made up of Werther’s letters to his long-suffering but silent friend Wilhelm detailing his doomed-from-the-outset passion for the essence-of-goodness Lotte who is looking after all her younger siblings in what Werther sees as the Arcadian bliss of the countryside. From the start Werther knows she’s promised to the much older Albert whom she marries, but the very impossibility of ever winning her feeds his monster tear-filled passions and the outpouring of his exquisite suffering. Eventually he sees he must annihilate himself which he does with Albert’s pistols, taking twelve hours to die.

Werther ('wert' is German ‘worth’) is much concerned with worth. He questions the worth of living; the ‘the contemptible ambitions of rank’ of the worthless nobility; prizes the worth of Homer, Klopstock and Ossian ( although Werther reading Goethe’s translations of Ossian to Lotte really were an indulgence I could have done without!). There is a progression through the seasons with the flowers, trees and insects of early Summer and the burgeoning of Werther’s passion, through to the winter mists, storms and tragedies befalling rural locals as the inevitability of his suicide approaches.

There is so much torment and weeping and so on that the whole could become tiresome for a modern listener, but the narrator Leighton Pugh saves Werther was such a fate. It must have been a seriously difficult task (just as well it’s only 4½ hours!), but he creates Werther’s destructive anguish as not merely repetitive, but both pitiable and universally human, as well as illustrating the extreme but serious Romanticism which gripped its readers over 250 years ago and has spawned a Werther afterlife in literature and film.

So, yes, Werther is worth it!

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A short review

Good narration, very enjoyable.
Beautiful, complex and intellectual writing. A good starting point for people who are new to Goethe.
Excessive character development, which is the main focus and which could be outdated, but gives a lively experience of the Sturm und Drang genre.
Worth an active listening and reflection.

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