Elective Affinities

This book was not what I thought it would be. Much lighter and sillier than I thought a German can be. Apparently Goethe when attacked on it's frivolity reponded that it was a novel written for women. He did not mean it to be serious. It's the story of a wealthy couple who marry later in life. Having been childhood sweethearts, their first marriages had been against their wishes, their love affair is seen as High Romance until two others appear on the scene. A childhood architect friend of the man and the young goddaughter of the woman.

As Goethe has them early on in the book explaining the scientific theory of elective affinities you know what you're in for. The couple are pulled apart and cleave to the other newly introduced particles---I mean---characters. All this is dealt with rather glibly including the death of a child from the couple that was conceived while they were both fantasizing about the other new person. The child, interestingly enough, doesn't look anything like it's parents and more wittily looks exactly like the fantasized characters. The book ends in a highly dramatized fashion and somehow reminded me of Garcia Marquez in some of the themes: the folk tale quality to the story telling, the perennial old goat lusting after an 18 year old girl.