The Works of J.W. von Goethe, Vol. VI (in 14 volumes)

“All extraordinary men, who have accomplished great and astonishing actions, have ever been decried by the world as drunken or insane.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in The Sorrows of Young Werther

The Works of J.W. von Goethe, Vol. VI—The Sorrows of Young Werther, Elective Affinities, The Good Women and A Tale, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is part of a 14-volume set originally published in 1901–1902. The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), written when Goethe was 24, became his most important work. This novel is about an unhappy romantic infatuation that ends in suicide. Its hero, Werther, an obsessive figure driven to despair by his unrequited love for the young Lotte, has become a pervasive literary archetype.

Elective Affinities (1809), is Goethe’s third novel and examines whether the laws of chemistry undermine or uphold the institution of marriage, as well as other human social relations.