"At times when I am ready to shoot myself, she plays that air, and the darkness which hung over me is dispersed, and I breathe freely again."
Die Leiden des jungen Werther [The Sorrows of Young Werther]
An international bestseller with 27 entries for the uniform title "Leiden des jungen Werthers. English" in the ESTC (1779, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1799).<br>
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I consulted, concurrently, the German and eighteenth-century English translations. See Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, <u>The Sorrows of Werter: a German Story</u>. 2 vols (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1779), &lt;<a href="http://find.galegroup.com/ecco/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=ECCO&userGroupName=viva_uva&tabID=T001&docId=CW109412717&type=multipage&contentSet=ECCOArticles&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE">Link to ECCO</a>&gt;. But, note, the translation is not always literal; the translator repeatedly tones down Werther's figurative language (especially, it seems, in the second volume): "A few expressions which had this appearance [of extravagance] have been omitted by the French, and a few more by the English translator, as they might possibly give offence in a work of this nature" (Preface).<br>
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Searching English text from a 1784 printing (Dodsley, "A New Edition") in Google Books &lt;<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=rNkFAAAAQAAJ">Link to volume I</a>&gt;&lt;<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=wdkFAAAAQAAJ">Link to voume II</a>&gt;<br>
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Reading <u>Die Leiden des jungen Werther</u> (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2002). German text from <a href="http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/3636/1">http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/3636/1</a>. Printed in 1774 in Leipzig, Weygand'sche Buchhandlung.