Western Canon Book Club: Goethe’s Romantic Turmoil: The Sorrows of Young Werther

Writer Henry Oliver continues the Western Canon Book Club series with a salon about the birth of Romanticism.

Shakespeare’s biggest influence was on the Romantics, the two generations of European writers who reimagined literature, philosophy, and society in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. One of the most dramatic results of this influence was Goethe’s early novella, The Sorrows of Young Werther. This salon will continue from the previous installment about Shakespeare’s inadequate kings to explore how Goethe interpreted Shakespeare to create something entirely new and revolutionary.

Recommended Reading:

• The Sorrows of Young Werther