Elective Affinities

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Paperback, 1978

Status

Available

Call number

813

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Penguin Classics (1978), Paperback, 304 pages

Description

Eduard and Charlotte are an aristocratic couple who live a harmonious but idle life in their estate. But the peace of their existence is thrown into chaos when two visitors - Eduard's friend the Captain and Charlotte's passionate young ward Ottilie - provoke unexpected attraction and forbidden love. Taking its title from the principle of elective affinities - the theory that certain chemicals are naturally drawn to one another - this is a penetrating study of marriage and adultery. Inspired by Goethe's own conflicting loyalties as he battled to maintain his relationship with his wife and control his feelings for a younger woman, Elective Affinities is one of the greatest works of the romance era- a rich exploration of love, conflict, and the inescapable force of fate.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Voglioleggere

Fiction, Eduard and Charlotte, an aristocratic couple both in their second marriage, invite the Captain, Eduard’s childhood friend, and Ottilie, the beautiful, orphaned, coming-of-age daughter of Charlotte’s deceased best-friend, to live with them. They are described as chemical species, whose

amorous affairs and relationships were predetermined via chemical affinities, similar to the pairings of alchemical species. Goethe outlined the view that passion, marriage, conflict, and free-will are all subject to the laws of chemistry and in which the lives of human species are regulated no differently than the lives of chemical species. Max Weber, used Goethe's conception of human "elective affinities" to formulate a large part of his sociology; Jeremy Adler, a German historian, in "Goethe’s Elective Affinity and the Chemistry of its Time", 1987, studied Goethe’s use of chemical theory. By extending the reference of an established chemical theory to encompass social interactions, according to Adler, the novel provides the basis for a universal theory of affinity. First published in 1809 by J. G. Cottaische Buchhandlung, Berlin, under the title "Die Wahlverwandtschaften"

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LibraryThing member mpho3

Elective Affinities is a bit of slog (hard to tell whether that's because of the translation from German language or the inscrutableness of turn-of-the-19th-century German aristocracy), but it's also not without certain charms. If it weren't for Ottilie's observations as scattered throughout, I

wouldn't have been able to finish it; she's a highly entertaining character amidst a cast of bores.

Goethe has chosen pessimistic themes such as tragedy, death, and fatalism to illustrate an optimistic one, that of love. Well, the scientific or chemical attraction of love and how the laws of man regarding love and marriage are no match for laws of nature for the latter requires a conformity that may not be natural at all.

I can't imagine to whom I would ever recommend this, but I'm glad I read it.

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LibraryThing member DanielSTJ

It is very important you read a good edition of this book- as it affects the translation. I read one edition almost to the end and restarted from another, and it was an entirely different experience. The one I preferred, invariably, was the one you can find for free on the "Online Library of

Liberty" website.

As per the novel, it was amazing. There are ups, downs, tribulations, foils, the switching of motivations and emotions, love, obsession, and overall unity of form. It is a surprising journey from inception to denouement and there is something to be garnered from each and every character. The language, indeed, at times approaches the sublime as well (as well as Odette's diary entries--aphorism in themselves) that unite the entirety of the experience together in a closely knit flashion.

4.5 stars--well deserved too!

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