Considered the beginning of the modern German novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther is the first novel by Goethe, who ranks among the few geniuses of world literature. Its author was only 25 years old, and the work brought him fame both in his homeland of Germany and throughout Europe. As one of the immortal classics, the work not only revealed Goethe but, with the echoes it created in German and European literature, has also continued its existence in new generations as an exemplary work that demonstrates the power of literature and art, without losing any of its freshness and influence in the 250 years since it was written in 1774. Perhaps we should look for the secret of this in the words of Goethe, who said, "There is a period in everyone's life when they think Werther was written for them alone."

The Sorrows of Young Werther, which Goethe conceived and wrote in the short span of two weeks in 1774, has been translated into Turkish by over forty translators to date. This translation of The Sorrows of Young Werther, which will now meet our readers, is the oldest known translation into Turkish and was produced by Kemalettin Bey and Vedat Örfi in 1920.