My desire to understand this story has been, at times, unsettling and mysterious. It was a hastily written first novel by a young author and it has since been burdened by prestige. Upon publication, Goethe became an intellectual celebrity overnight, but he would distance himself from it when he got older, regretting the fame it had brought him. Since then, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" has been translated, imitated, pirated, parodied and retold in every art form, and its enduring influence on the literate community is impossible to comprehend. -John Zelazny (author of The Sorrows of Young Mike)