The literary sensation The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) launched its twenty-five year old author on the world stage overnight. Johann Wolfgang von Goethes novel gave voice to young bourgeois intellectuals who despaired of finding fulfillment and authenticity in a hierarchical, convention-bound society.
In the novel, Werther, a social rebel with artistic leanings, falls in love with Lotte, a young woman who is already engaged to Werthers friend, the stolid Albert. In a spiral of extravagantly self-destructive behavior and torment, Werther pays the ultimate price for his illicit passion.