The Sorrows of Young Werther

At a glance

1774 epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832

First published

1774

Original language

German

Genre

Romance

Readers

Adult

Length

Standard40,000 to 80,000 words

Readers' rating

3.6 out of 5from 297 ratings on Hardcover

How long it takes to read

About 2 h 50 min at 250 words a minute, or 4 h 34 min as an audiobook.

Compared with other books

The books closest in length, and a few well-known ones for scale.

1. 1War and PeaceLeo Tolstoy587,287Compare
2. 2The Fellowship of the RingJ. R. R. Tolkien177,227Compare
3. 3Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen121,970Compare
4. 4Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneJ. K. Rowling76,944Compare
5. 5The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald47,094Compare
6. 6So Long, and Thanks for All the FishDouglas Adams42,859Compare
7. 7The Turn of the ScrewHenry James42,795Compare
8. 8The Sorrows of Young WertherJohann Wolfgang von Goethe42,526
9. 9The Book of DragonsE. Nesbit42,271Compare
10. 10Venus in FursLeopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch42,095Compare

Counted from the text

Automated estimates from the selected Project Gutenberg text; it may include a preface or notes.

Words in the text

42,668

Dialogue

24%of the words are inside quotation marks

Average sentence

17.8 words

Vocabulary

443 different words in every 1,000Distinct words in the sampled text; this does not measure writing quality.

Where the numbers come from

The word count comes from the sources below.

• standardebooks.orgword count
• gutenberg.orgword count
• openlibrary.orgcover and record
• wikidata.orgdescription and author
• hardcover.appreaders' rating

The word count is Standard Ebooks’ count of its edition; the figures under “Counted from the text” are Musael’s own count of the Project Gutenberg text.

Checked on 2026-10-27. Page counts change from edition to edition. Cover from Open Library; the edition shown may differ.

Questions