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by David Constantine,Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

David Constantine Johann Wolfgang von Goethe History and Criticism English

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

ISBN: 0192828614
Author: David Constantine,Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Publisher: Oxford University Press (June 23, 1994)
Language: English
Pages: 272
ePub: 1917 kb
Fb2: 1484 kb
Rating: 4.8
Other formats: lrf txt rtf mobi
Category: Literature
Subcategory: History and Criticism

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Elective Affinities (German: Die ), also translated under the title Kindred by Choice, is the third novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1809.

Elective Affinities (German: Die ), also translated under the title Kindred by Choice, is the third novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1809. The title is taken from a scientific term once used to describe the tendency of chemical species to combine with certain substances or species in preference to others

This item:Elective Affinities: A Novel (Oxford World's Classics) by Johann Wolfgang . This is a very surprising book. I read about in the list of 20 great but neglected novels published in a newspaper and it piqued my curiosity

This is a very surprising book. I read about in the list of 20 great but neglected novels published in a newspaper and it piqued my curiosity. Glad I read it. It is a very introspective book, getting deep into the character psyche of protagonists, with extremely intelligent discussions.

David Constantine is a respected translator and poet, and the winner of the BBC National Short Story Award for . The literary impact of Johann Goethe's 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther cannot be underestimated.

David Constantine is a respected translator and poet, and the winner of the BBC National Short Story Award for 2010. Series: Oxford World's Classics. It was the second Gothic novel, a decade after the first: Horace Walpole's The Castle of Ortranto. The Old English Barron followed in 1778 and The Mysteries of Udolpho in 1794. in 1796 The Monk was published and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in 1818 where the unloved monster finds a worn copy of The Sorrows of Young Werther and likens himself to the protagonist.

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It is a very beautiful short novel by Goethe. It was first published in 1809, describing the life of the leisure society of the time. I personally enjoy very much descriptions of any past time society and Goethe's style is wonderful. Loved it. Could not put it down. 2 people found this helpful.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German novelist, dramatist, poet, humanist, scientist, philosopher, and for ten years chief minister of state at Weimar. The Sorrows of Young Werther. Instruction does much, but encouragement everything. Letter to A. F. Oeser (9 November 1768), Early and miscellaneous letters of J. W. Goethe, including letters to his mother. With notes and a short biography (1884). Wo viel Licht ist, ist starker Schatten.

In Elective Affinities Goethe conducts an experiment with the lives of people who are living badly. Charlotte and Eduard, aristocracts with little to occupy them, invite Ottilie and the Captain into their lives; against morality, good sense, and conscious volition all four are drawn into relationships as inexorably as if they were substances in a chemical equation. The vel asks whether we have free will or t; more disturbingly, it confronts its characters with the monstrous consequences of their repression of any real life in themselves.

Elective Affinities book.

Johann wolfgang von goethe. By Delphi Classics, 2013 . The novel made the young Goethe one of the true first international literary celebrities. The Sorrows of Young Werther is depicted as a collection of letters written by a young artist of highly sensitive and passionate temperament, sent to his friend Wilhelm. buzz of the little world among the stalks, and grow familiar with the countless indescribable forms of the insects and flies, then I feel the presence of the Almighty, who formed us in his own image, and the breath of that universal love which bears and sustains us, as it floats around us in an eternity of bliss; and then, my friend, when.

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Elective Affinities was written when Goethe was sixty and long established as Germany's literary giant. This is a new edition of his penetrating study of marriage and passion, bringing together four people in an inexorable manner. The novel asks whether we have free will or not and confronts its characters with the monstrous consequences of repressing what little "real life" they have in themselves, a life so far removed from their natural states that it appears to them as something terrible and destructive.

Comments: (7)

Abuseyourdna

When I first came across this book in 2006, I was taken back to such an effect that I was forced into writing a full textbook on Human Chemistry (Volume One) (2007), just to explain what Goethe was talking about in his famous chapter four, where the characters describe their interactions as a double elective affinity reaction. I am still taken back. A few minutes ago, to note, I uploaded a 3-min clip of chapter four, of the 1996 French-Italian film version, le affinita' elettive / The Elective Affinities (Dvd) Italian Import (Elective Affinities [VHS]), to YouTube.

As far as subject genealogy goes, in this branch of chemistry, Goethe's elective affinities (a theory he had originally developed as early as 1799) was the first book on the subject of human chemistry; William Fairburn's Human chemistry was the second, Thomas Dreier's 1948 We Human Chemicals or, The Knack of Getting Along with Everybody was the third, and my 2007 Human Chemistry, has been the latest (as of 2010); Human Chemistry (Volume Two), chapter ten "Goethe's Affinities", explains Goethe's human affinity theory in a modern chemical thermodynamics sense. Those with a background in chemistry, particularly physical chemistry or chemical engineering, will enjoy this book. Goethe's elective affinities, is by far and wide the most awe inspiring intellectual achievement of all time.

Shakanos

It is a wonderful analyses of human and marriage phychology, also a detailed explanation of higher society in he late 18th century: how landscape was viewed and enjoyed should be read by all interested in landscaping.

The Apotheoses of Lacspor

A fabulous study of inner motivation versus outer conformity

Gir

Very intelligent and well written story, by one of the great intellects of all time, highly recommend to Goethe fans.

Invissibale

This is my favorite Goethe.

lubov

the cover is not the same as shown in the pic. Whatever, I like the fiction, and the book itself is decently printed and bound.

Welahza

I realize that reading a translation always puts one at the mercy of the translator, and unfortunately my German is far too limited to allow me to tackle a book by Goethe. Thus, I can in no way determine the quality of this translation, or if my dissatisfaction with the book stems from the translator or from the book itself. Nevertheless, I tried three times to make it through this book; on my third attempt, I actually made it halfway through, but even that was so much of a chore that I have no desire to finish it. The story is uninvolving, the characters uninteresting, and whatever deep meanings Goethe might have intended get so lost in the upholstery that one wonders if the search is worth the effort. I know that even setting these ideas forth in public will probably make me a philistine in the eyes of some, but trust me -- I've been called worse. As much as I hate to admit it, I simply can't recommend this book at all.

The greatest writer of his time enters into a late-life marriage that tests his recent and unfamiliar commitment to monogamy.

That's a novel waiting to happen.

Goethe is the writer, and Elective Affinities is that novel.

Original? Challenging? Readable? All of the above --- and compared to the love stories pumped out by contemporary writers, blazingly erotic. Not in a Tab A/Slot B way, but in the head, where real eroticism burns hottest.

Consider: Eduard and Charlotte were thwarted from marriage and had to marry others, but as soon as they were free again, they declared undying love. He's a baron, and wealthy --- he and Charlotte spent blissful months planting gardens, entertaining friends, and just generally throwing off sparks of wedded bliss.

"There is nothing of more significance in any situation than the intervention of a third party," Goethe writes, and so he brings one on ---the Captain, a dashing young friend of Eduard's who is between homes. Charlotte would prefer that he not join their household. Eduard, as Goethe notes, "was not used to denying himself anything." So bring on the Captain.... Then we learn that Charlotte's niece Ottilie is not doing well at boarding school; Charlotte and Eduard add her to their household.

An older husband and a young wife. A handsome man and a ravishing girl. In chemistry, as the Captain explains, elements recombine. And so, too, in human affairs --- elective affinities. Soon it's Eduard and Ottilie, the Captain and Charlotte.

This is not a novel about swapping. Set at the beginning of the 19th century, it's a tale of secret notes, walks in the garden, witty remarks at dinner. Actual sex? It's so meaningful that it's some sort of grail --- and that anticipation inspires each character to new heights of desire.

Eduard will risk all to be with Ottilie. Charlotte is made of stronger stuff, as is the Captain --- they know that the passion they feel must be extinguished, and not just for appearances. As a friend lectures them, "Marriage is the beginning and pinnacle of civilization." The impulse to stray? "Let the moment pass, and you will count yourself happy that what has so long stood firm still stands."

But do they? (Do we?) It would be a short novel if they did. Goethe's point is not that we are prisoners of fate, but slaves of desire --- we want what we want, however high the price. And in this novel, the price is very, very high.

Goethe's prose is stunningly modern; his people are driven by notions you'll have no trouble understanding. Of course there are also discussions of gardens and pathways and views that are certain to bore most readers; feel free not to read every word. And you can skim the last hundred pages without missing much. But the first half of this book --- the tale that shows how a spark catches, the way passion is ignited --- is universal and eternal and full of ideas you'll think about every time your eye wanders.

Not a bad achievement for a novel published in 1809.

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