The Sorrows of Young Werther

The Sorrows of Young Werther is a 1774 epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which appeared as a revised edition in 1787. It was one of the main novels in the Sturm und Drang period in German literature and influenced the later Romantic movement. The novel The Sorrows of Young Werther was banned in Denmark, Italy, and Leipzig due to its potential to inspire suicidal behaviour in young men. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) is not so much a tale of love and romance as it is a chronicle of mental health; specifically, it seems, Goethe is tackling the idea of depression and even (though the term would not have existed then) bi-polar depression.