Photo by mali maeder: https://www.pexels.com/photo/pathway-between-green-leafed-trees-109391/
Thank you to everyone who joined Sunday's conversation about The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the first international bestseller in German.
Below find details about the July discussion of The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth as well as the full schedule through December.
Links and notes for exploration of The Sorrows of Young Werther:
BBC Radio - Free Thinking episode about the book featuring professors of music, German and European Cultural History, and philosophy and a researcher/consultant psychiatrist. Listen here.
Many film adaptations exist, including a 9-minute silent film from 1910 and a 1993 reinterpretation in modern times.
The synopsis of Massenet's operatic adaptation (which significantly changes Charlotte's role). (Watch Charlotte and Werner in a Royal Opera House production.)
A 1999 article from the Washington Post uncovered by one of our members that explores Goethe's legacy ("In Weimar, Dishing the Dirt on Goethe").
From The New Yorker, "The Troublesome Legacy of the Early Romantics"
A Washington University project briefly analyzes the four works (including The Sorrows of Young Werther) from which Frankenstein gained his education in Mary Shelley's novel.
Did you know we have a Goethe statue in Golden Gate Park? One of our members reminded us on Sunday. Read the history--including its connection to Sonoma's Gundlach Bundschu Winery.
Our July Discussion
For July, we turn to Joseph Roth's novel The Radetzky March:
"Set against the doomed splendor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, The Radetzky March tells the story of the celebrated Trotta family, tracing their rise and fall over three generations. Theirs is a sweeping history of heroism and duty, desire and compromise, tragedy and heartbreak, a story that lasts until the darkening eve of World War One, when all is set to fall apart." (source)
When and where
Sunday, July 16
11:00 a.m. to approx. 12:15 p.m. Pacific Time
Books Inc. Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness, San Francisco
The book is available through Books Inc. To order a copy (mention you are part of the book group), please call or stop by the Opera Plaza store.
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