Customer Reviews

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

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Goethe flexes his literary muscles from the get-go and flat out tells the reader, in the first chapter, exactly what is going to happen in this book- robbing the reader of any element of surprise- and then expertly delivers exactly what he promised.
Charlotte and Eduard are a happily married couple who entertain the notion of inviting some needy friends- a respected male and a young female- to come stay with them in their time of need. Charlotte and Eduard are hesitant to do so, however, because, as all literature shows, anytime such a situation occurs, problems arise in the marriage and things end badly. So guess what happens? Eduard and Charlotte invite Eduard's long time friend the Captain and Charlotte's young innocent niece Ottilie to stay with them, and before you know it, the wife is spending all her time with her husband's best friend and the niece is flirting with her aunt's husband, exactly as Goethe promised.
Fully aware of what is going on the entire time, the characters nonetheless continue to make questionable choices as Goethe questions the notion of marriage and love and questions whether or not we can control our baser impulses; and even though deeper notions of free will and morality drive the action, the action itself evolves in a steady, slowly intensifying fashion that keeps the reader interested to the very (sad) end.
In "Elective Affinities", Goethe has taken a standard literature plot and elevated it to new heights.

"Elective affinities", what a great and creative way to write about the phenomena of love, passion, and other extraneous variables that when combined, can lead to a new organic process! Certainly, it is the brilliance of the versatile and erudite author and the advantage of "the Age of Wonder" (by Richarld Holmes).

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