The Sorrows of Young Werther - J. W. von Goethe (adult books to read TXT) 📗

flash, and heard the report of the pistol; but, as everything remained quiet, he thought no more of it.

In the morning, at six o’clock, the servant went into Werther’s room with a candle. He found his master stretched upon the floor, weltering in his blood, and the pistols at his side. He called, he took him in his arms, but received no answer. Life was not yet quite extinct. The servant ran for a surgeon, and then went to fetch Albert. Charlotte heard the ringing of the bell: a cold shudder seized her. She wakened her husband, and they both rose. The servant, bathed in tears, faltered forth the dreadful news. Charlotte fell senseless at Albert’s feet.

When the surgeon came to the unfortunate Werther, he was still lying on the floor; and his pulse beat, but his limbs were cold. The bullet, entering the forehead, over the right eye, had penetrated the skull. A vein was opened in his right arm: the blood came, and he still continued to breathe.

From the blood which flowed from the chair, it could be inferred that he had committed the rash act sitting at his bureau, and that he afterward fell upon the floor. He was found lying on his back near the window. He was in full-dress costume.

The house, the neighbourhood, and the whole town were immediately in commotion. Albert arrived. They had laid Werther on the bed: his head was bound up, and the paleness of death was upon his face. His limbs were motionless; but he still breathed, at one time strongly, then weaker⁠—his death was momently expected.

He had drunk only one glass of the wine. Emilia Galotti lay open upon his bureau.

I shall say nothing of Albert’s distress, or of Charlotte’s grief.

The old steward hastened to the house immediately upon hearing the news: he embraced his dying friend amid a flood of tears. His eldest boys soon followed him on foot. In speechless sorrow they threw themselves on their knees by the bedside, and kissed his hands and face. The eldest, who was his favourite, hung over him till he expired; and even then he was removed by force. At twelve o’clock Werther breathed his last. The presence of the steward, and the precautions he had adopted, prevented a disturbance; and that night, at the hour of eleven, he caused the body to be interred in the place which Werther had selected for himself.

The steward and his sons followed the corpse to the grave. Albert was unable to accompany them. Charlotte’s life was despaired of. The body was carried by labourers. No priest attended.

Endnotes

The reader need not take the trouble to look for the place thus designated. We have found it necessary to change the names given in the original. ↩

We feel obliged to suppress the passage in the letter, to prevent anyone from feeling aggrieved; although no author need pay much attention to the opinion of a mere girl, or that of an unsteady young man. ↩

Though the names are omitted, yet the authors mentioned deserve Charlotte’s approbation, and will feel it in their hearts when they read this passage. It concerns no other person. ↩

Colophon

The Sorrows of Young Werther
was published in 1774 by
J. W. von Goethe.
It was translated from German in 1902 by
R. D. Boylan.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Geoff Coffey,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2001 by
Irene Potter and Michael Potter
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
HathiTrust Digital Library.

The cover page is adapted from
Self Portrait, 1809,
a painting completed circa 1809 by
Orest Adamovich Kiprenskiĭ.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
July 20, 2017, 6:58 p.m.
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