“The Sorrows of Young Werther” is an epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1774. Written in diary form, it tells the tale of an unhappy, passionate young man hopelessly in love with Charlotte, the wife of a friend - a man who he alternately admires and detests. The work is semi-autobiographical, as two years before the publication of the novel, Goethe experienced the same tempestuous period.