Elective Affinities: A Novel (The World's Classics)

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

book data

361 ratings, 3.80 average rating, 23 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		30%
4		33%
3		24%
2		8%
1		3%

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published

June 23rd 1994 by Oxford University Press, USA (first published 1809)

details

Paperback, 272 pages

isbn

0192828614 (isbn13: 9780192828613)

description

The novel asks whether we have free will or not; more disturbingly, it confronts its characters with the monstrous consequences of their repression of…more

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Sep 17, 2009

Georgia rated it:

(review of isbn 0895269562)

bookshelves: novels

Read in August, 2009

It was interesting. Goethe wrote this book in part as a meditation and exploration of the scientific developments that were happening at the time. Specifically he was interested in chemistry and the law of attraction. "The tendency of those elements which, when they come into contact, at once take hold of, and act on one another, we call 'affinity', states one of the characters in the book. So Goethe applies these laws that are being discovered in chemistry to human relationships, and so cr...more

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Sep 19, 2009

Lavinia rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

bookshelves: 2009, fiction

Owns a copy — Read in September, 2009

Herr Goethe definitely had a passion for drama and tragedy. Except this time she dies but, don't cry yet, he joins her in death (gothic, right?) and "Thus the lovers lie sleeping side by side ; peace hovers above their resting-place ; fair angel faces gaze down upon them from aloft. And what happiness is in store for them at the moment of their common awakening!"

It started promising, a not-so-young couple's life is disturbed by 2 newcomers and using the chemical process of ...more

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Jul 18, 2009

Maisie rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

Read in February, 2009

Elective Affinities starts out in the midst of a perfectly comfortable country house inhabited by a perfectly content couple. However, the intrusion of each partner's guest starts the process of unwinding the marriage in slow and heartbreaking clarity. The delicate, sensitive portrayal of duty versus emotion is made even more poignant by the autobiographical aspect, derived from Goethe's torment between his wife and mistress. The thought that such a well-suited couple can be turned against each ...more

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Apr 29, 2008

Mike rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

Read in April, 2008

recommended to Mike by: Kora Battig, by way of the filmic version
recommends it for: Germanists, fans of modern lit, Shakespeare

Goethe's big works have left a strong imprint on modern literary field: Faust's endless ambition, Werther's primal despondency, and the Roman elegies' outright eroticism all set the stage for later authors to flesh out the Romantic worldview. Goethe's poetry doesn't translate to English comfortably, however, and so if one is to approach him as a casual reader, one must do so in an indirect way. Happily I came upon first his Italian Journey, a good start for anyone looking to venture beyond the L...more Goethe's big works have left a strong imprint on modern literary field: Faust's endless ambition, Werther's primal despondency, and the Roman elegies' outright eroticism all set the stage for later authors to flesh out the Romantic worldview. Goethe's poetry doesn't translate to English comfortably, however, and so if one is to approach him as a casual reader, one must do so in an indirect way. Happily I came upon first his Italian Journey, a good start for anyone looking to venture beyond the Let's Go/Rick Steves mindset when traveling. Next up I read Elective Affinities, a story I'd first encountered in an Italian language film adaptation.

The prime theme of the book is the strain that marriage puts on humans' natural attractions for one another. Eduard and Charlotte are two aristocrats who have finally come together after many a year apart. They have married and settled into the administration of their estate, but before long idle minds and a desire to help their friends and acquaintances lead them to invite her cousin Ottilie and his friend the Major into the estate. Predictably, mixed emotions arise and through a series of complications the nature of attraction, the validity of marriage, and the possibility of human happiness are all brought out as a tableaux 'ecrit, so to speak.

As for the mechanics of the plot, they are as pleasing and as predictable as most of Shakespeare, and--like Shakespeare--much of the book's craft lies in the way that it moves from point A to point B. Goethe wrote the novel in the latter years of his life, and proved that he was still every bit the master of the novel format: simple conversations, trenchant characterization, and seamless development of the plot combine over the book's 240 pages with an elegance that reminds me of Gatsby.

While I am not qualified to describe the novel's relationship to the rest of Goethe's ouevre, I can relate why he remains a fascinating author in my mind: one, he is the bridge between the Enlightenment and the later Romantic period. He was an avid scientist but also a believer in the sway that emotion had over our lives. The very title Elective Affinities refers to contemporary theory of the laws governing chemical interaction. He uses a metaphor based in science and therefore reason to suggest that human will is perhaps the least influential of a number of factors in our lives. This paradox carries its own tension, but even beyond this, the symbolism of the novel, the natural motifs based on the elements and the senses, harken to the romantic or mythological elements of German culture. Goethe's interest in local folklore and symbolism represents another trend in 19th and 20th century literature. A book which succeeds in its own right and which provides a road map to many other interesting lines of thought on modern writing. (less)

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Aug 21, 2007

datsue Schroeter rated it:

(review of isbn 0543893812)

bookshelves: classics

Read in January, 2002

Reading this for the first time when I was a little older, it still didn't fare better with me than Werther did.
From those I have read, I must admit that I don't see Goethe as a great novellist.
"Die Wahlverwandtschaften" - "Elective Affinities" is Goethe's marriage novel, of a couple that married relatively late in life but now finds that both partners fall in love with somebody else. In its day, the novel caused an outcry because of the clearly mentioned and de...more

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Jul 12, 2008

Kate rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

Read in July, 2008

This is a beautiful novella; it is written on levels metaphor. The main characters work on their property to sculpt their experience therein and to amp up its symbolic references. All the while the 4 principle players are deeply affecting one another so that no one person acts independently but rather in reaction to the emotional events of his companion, guest or neighbor. Twisted and crossed affections ... This is definitely one of those books about people with luxury problems- however it is mu...more

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Jan 22, 2010

Juan Pablo marked it as to-read (review of isbn 0192837761)

bookshelves: to-read

De aquí tomo Weber el concepto de "afinidad electiva" (obviamente, mutándolo) que usó para describir la relación entre la ética protestante y el espíritu capitalista.

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Jan 19, 2008

Stephan rated it:

(review of isbn 0140442421)

Read in February, 2008

Begins slow but eventually becomes hard to put down, drawing to a dramatic end where everyone worth something croaks over locks of hair and old letters.

I never doubted Goethe's sense and touch with words. He's good with agony without every saying the word. But it's written like all sorts of books in an aged language I've almost forgotten could have existed (and boy, was I into this sort of thing a few years ago). That is, I mean, written the same way a man in a tuxedo would play socc...more

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Nov 09, 2009

David rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

Part of a comparative literature course I'm teaching now. Not easy for the modern reader on the first try, but on a second read has amazing moments. J Hillis Miller in Ariadne's Thread provides perceptive commentary from the narrative point of view.

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Feb 06, 2009

Katie Godwin rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

Read in January, 2001

My favorite book of all time.

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Jun 13, 2009

Lu rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

interesting

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Jul 02, 2009

Alix rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

Read in August, 2009

Well, Goethe has finally discovered "plot," albeit simplistic and wandering. No character development, and the "hero" isn't, to put it mildly. Romantic dreck. Ick! I continue to slog through his collected works and sincerely hope it gets better. So far, he wouldn't be on my recommended reading list - more to be avoided! His historical writing of actual places, events, times, etc. is excellent - but his fiction reeks.

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May 30, 2008

Cecily rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

bookshelves: classics

Analysis of the meaning and difficulties of marriage, especially the effect of other people. The first third is more thoughtful and analytical; the remainder slightly more plot-driven. The mannered, detached and somewhat unnatural style (though apparently typical of a common German novel form of the time) is slightly reminiscent of Ivy Compton-Burnett, and makes the whole experience rather unengaging.

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Aug 19, 2009

Isabel Vela rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

Genial! Me lo he leído dos veces!

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Feb 19, 2008

Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

bookshelves: 2010, highly-recommended, novels

Read in February, 2010

One of the few novels that successfully uses fiction to play with a philosophical system -- so much so that you can still enjoy it without paying attention to that, if you couldn't care less. And as far as Goethe's fiction goes, "Elective Affinities" is far superior to "The Sorrows of Young Werther" in every conceivable way.

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Feb 29, 2008

K' Lati rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

bookshelves: oxford-worlds-classics

Read in November, 2007

Ottilie comes in and ruins poor Charlottes life and gets to be the martyr? How the heck does that happen.

This book shows what happens when relationships go farther than they would normaly. There are so many extremes going on between the four main charecters in this book.

Good but not a favorite.

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Aug 18, 2009

Siobhan rated it:

(review of isbn 0140442421)

I can't do it. I can't get through it. I guess I'm not an early-romantic-German lit kind of girl. But it is fascinating to see how much romanticism (of the romantic period) changed when it arrived in England, and France for that matter.
Maybe I'll have to pick it up again in another few years.

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Sep 09, 2007

Luxagraf rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

bookshelves: literature, science

Read in February, 2006

Though his most famous work is of course Faust, Goethe wrote plenty of other excellent books. Apparently he was obsessed with alchemy and chemistry, hence the title of this delightful novel.

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Apr 23, 2008

Diana rated it:

(review of isbn 0192837761)

Read in March, 2008

Passion contra social expectations. An "introduction" to relationships, love and the nature of LIFE. How we deal with it? Makes us who we are.

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