The Sorrows of Young Werther (Penguin Red Classics) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780141921297
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2006-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

24 December

The ambassador is extremely trying, as I foresaw. He is the most punctilious oaf imaginable, doing everything step by step, meticulous as a maiden aunt, a man whom it is impossible to satisfy because he is never satisfied with himself. I like to get on with my work, and once it is finished that is that; but he is perfectly capable of returning papers to me and saying: ‘That is fine, but have another look through it, one can always find a better word or an apter particle.’—At such times I could clean take leave of my senses. Not a single and or conjunction may be omitted, and he is a sworn enemy of all the inversions43 of syntax that sometimes occur to me; if a sentence is not played to a familiar tune he cannot understand a word of it. Being associated with such a person is a woeful business.

My close acquaintance with Count C. is the only compensation. Recently he quite frankly told me how dissatisfied he was with the slowness and laboriousness of my ambassador. ‘People make things more difficult for themselves and for others too. Still,’ he said, ‘one must be resigned to it, like a traveller who has to cross a mountain; naturally his route would be a deal more comfortable, and shorter, if the mountain were not there, but, as it is, he has to get on with climbing it!’—

My old fellow is well aware of the count’s preference for myself over him, and it annoys him, so that he seizes every opportunity to speak ill of the count to me, whereupon I naturally reply in his defence, which only makes things worse. Yesterday he really vexed me by aiming a remark at me as well: he observed that the count handled the affairs of the world quite well, got on with his work, and wrote presentably, but he had as little solid learning as all geniuses. With that he looked at me with an expression that seemed to ask, ‘Did that one go home?’ But it did not produce the desired effect in me; I despised the man for thinking and behaving in such a way. I stood up to him, and countered with considerable warmth. The count, I said, was a man deserving of respect, for his character and for his knowledge. ‘I have never met anyone,’ I said, ‘who has succeeded so well in broadening the horizons of his spirit, and extending his knowledge in countless areas, and still turning his hand to the affairs of everyday life.’—This was too much for his poor brain, and I took my leave, so as not to be put in a temper by some further nonsense.

And it is all your fault, for talking me into this yoke and singing the praises of a busy life! If the man who grows potatoes and goes to town to sell his corn is not better employed than I am, let me slave away ten whole years longer in the galleys I am chained in now.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.