R Dillon Boylan

The Sorrows of Young Werther is a story about unrequited love, primarily presented as a collection of letters written by Werther, a young artist of a sensitive and passionate temperament, to his friend Wilhelm. The story gives an intimate account of Werther's stay in the fictional village of Wahlheim, whose peasants have enchanted him with their simple ways. There he meets Charlotte, a beautiful young girl who takes care of her siblings after the death of their mother. Werther falls in love with Charlotte despite knowing beforehand that she is engaged to a man named Albert, eleven years her senior. The Sorrows of Young Werther was one of the most important novels in the Sturm und Drang period in German literature, and influenced the later Romantic movement. The book was originally published anonymously, and Goethe distanced himself from the book in his later years, regretting the fame it had brought him and the consequent attention to his own youthful love of Charlotte Buff, then engaged to another man. This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket.

Elective Affinities, also translated under the title Kindred by Choice, is the third novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1809. The title is taken from a scientific term once used to describe the tendency of chemical species to combine with certain substances or species in preference to others. The novel is based on the metaphor of human passions being governed or regulated by the laws of chemical affinity, and examines whether or not the science and laws of chemistry undermine or uphold the institution of marriage, as well as other human social relations. The story is situated around the city of Weimar. Goethe's main characters are Eduard and Charlotte, an aristocratic couple both in their second marriage, enjoying an idyllic but semi-dull life on the grounds of their rural estate. They invite the Captain, Eduard's childhood friend, and Ottilie, the beautiful, orphaned, coming-of-age niece of Charlotte, to live with them...