Elective Affinities by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Anna Arco
Sat 22 Aug 2009 19.01 EDT

The 19th-century scientific term for the chemical attraction of certain substances to each other above others makes for an unlikely title for a Romantic novella, or so it would seem. But Johann Wolfgang Goethe's classic work uses the chemical metaphor to explore the conflict between bonds created by society and the bonds that are formed through chemical attractions. Controversial in its day, as it lent itself to the interpretation that love could be reduced to a chemical attraction, the novella continues to be relevant. Despite a shift in mores, contemporary readers will recognise the emotional pressures and the problems that Goethe explores through his characters and the Romantic landscape.

Baron Eduard and his wife, Charlotte, wealthy aristocrats who have married each other for love after earlier marriages of convenience, decide to disrupt - as an experiment - their life in a rural idyll by inviting some visitors, a friend called the Captain and Charlotte's beautiful, docile niece, Ottilie. The inevitable happens: Eduard is irrevocably attracted to Ottilie and Charlotte to the Captain.

While Charlotte struggles against her inclination, Eduard succumbs to it and the young Ottilie falls for the older man. Charlotte confronts her husband but refuses to agree to a divorce - people often did in Weimar society - and he abandons both women.

More heartbreak and drama follow before the novella ends, a few characters poorer. The translation is good but suffers a bit from the awkwardness of German syntax and Goethe's very formal style, which can make this new edition seem a struggle at times.