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I was introduced to Werther too early in my German literature studies, which turned me off to Goethe. Big mistake. Foreign students of German literature should

• aleksaxyz 7y ago
  I read a lot of Nietzsche, who raves about Goethe as a representative of the latter half of N's Dionysian/Apollonian dichotomy—and in later works becomes the symbol of synthesis between the two. Similar to you, I kind of ignored N's great characterization of Goethe due to Werther, but only because I thought Goethe was a one-hit wonder pop-philosopher novelist when I first started hearing the name. I was honestly confused about how Werther could represent so much of N's philosophy! And then I read about its author and found one of the most accomplished individuals in the 18th/19th centuries.