The Sorrows Of Not So Young Tonio

I just finished Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, a novel which made Goethe a celebrity in his day. What a sad commentary on how times change that few people apart from German Lit students even hear of it today.

Anyway, the novel still holds up quite favorably today, and the most amazing part is not the romantic conventions it obviously inspired but the conventions it chooses not to follow. Unlike many “romances” one sees today, Goethe does not choose to make young Werther's romantic rival a hopeless clod or a brutal sadist. Instead, he's just an ordinary guy who is genuinely deserving of happiness. Nor is the object of his affection necessarily a woman who “needs” rescue from a loveless marriage or an involuntary engagement. In fact, there is never any indication given that the woman in question -- Charlotte -- regrets not being romantically involved with Werther or desires escape from her current relationship.

Alas, Werther doesn't see it that way and in the end, he kills himself, an act that not only ends his life but worsens the life of the woman he supposedly loved.

There's a lesson there, methinks...