Richardson's example, moreover, had been followed
in another work which had achieved as sensational as success as
_Clarissa_--Rousseau's _Nouvelle Heloise_. In form and substance
_Werther_ was as much inspired by Richardson and Rousseau as _Goetz_
had been by Shakespeare, yet in _Werther_, as in _Goetz_, the world
recognised an original creation which bore a new message to every
heart capable of receiving it.
The portentous work was published in the autumn of 1774, but the form
in which we now have it belongs to a later date. In the first complete
edition of Goethe's Works (1787), _Werther_ appeared with certain
modifications, which did not, however, as in the case of _Goetz_,
organically affect its original form.[153] Expressions which to
Goethe's maturer taste appeared objectionable were altered--not
always, German critics are disposed to think, in the direction of
improvement; the story of the unfortunate peasant in whose fate
Werther saw an image of his own, was introduced; and, in deference to
the feelings of Kestner and Lotte, the characters of the two persons
in the book with whom readers identified them were presented in a
somewhat more favourable light.
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