I’ve Never Wanted Anyone More: Goethe adaptation feels more American Pie than high literature

By Sofia Nilsson Warkander, PhD Candidate, 17th-Century Literature, Stockholm University

José Lourenço’s film adaptation of German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther opens with a line on screen stating it is “based on the smash hit 1774 novel of tragic romance”. Set in contemporary Canada, it revolves around Werther (Douglas Booth), who falls tragically in love with Charlotte (Alison Pill), who is already engaged to Albert (Patrick J. Adams).

Goethe’s “smash hit” was written in a new literary landscape, where both readers and writers increasingly belonged to…

Read complete article

~	President Trump may think he is President Jackson reincarnated − but there are lessons in Old Hickory’s resistance to sycophants

~	Front-of-package food labels: A path to healthier choices

~	Government needs to show that its AI plan can be trusted to deal with serious risks when it comes to health data

~	The way UK inflation is worked out is changing – and it will matter for everyone

~	Immigration rules keep changing, and the confusion can cause real problems for migrants

~	The world wildlife trade regulator is 50 – here’s what has worked and what needs to change

~	Addicted: how the world got hooked on illicit drugs – and why we need to view this as a global threat like climate change

~	North Korea: Kim Jong-un is sending a second wave of soldiers to Ukraine – here’s why

~	Banning wildlife trade can increase trade of other threatened species

~	Books of mana: 10 essential reads for Waitangi Day