On reading
the first English translation of _Werther_ (1783), Goethe wrote: "It
gave me much pleasure to read my thoughts in the language of my
instructors."]
If English literature contributed to the tone of feeling in _Werther_,
it also, though Goethe does not mention the fact, suggested the
literary form in which it is cast. In the case of his former loves,
his emotions had found vent in a succession of lyrics thrown off as
occasion prompted, but his later experiences had been of a more
complex nature, and demanded a larger canvas for their development. It
would appear that Goethe's original intention was to adopt the
dramatic form which had been so successful in the case of _Goetz_, and
we are led to believe that, in accordance with this intention, he
actually made a beginning of his work. In the interval between his
discontinuing and resuming it, however, he changed his mind; and in
the form in which we have it _Werther_ is mainly composed of letters
addressed by its central character to an absent friend. There can be
little doubt that the epistolary form was suggested by a book with
which Goethe was familiar, and which had been received with enthusiasm
in Germany as in other continental countries--Richardson's _Clarissa
Harlowe_ (1747-8).
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