Elective Affinities

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.3
Word count
696K words
Chapters
70

Tags

Foreign Language Books World Classics Love EntanglementsHuman NatureRomantic TragedyWestern ThoughtMoral DilemmaPhilosophical Novel

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Les affinités électives by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheAuthor: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832,Language: French, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Jan 1, 2004

Editor's review

A French translation of Goethe's late novel Elective Affinities, available in the Project Gutenberg public-domain eBook library. Using the chemical term "affinity" as a metaphor, the work explores the complex tensions among marriage, emotion, and rational order, and holds a distinctive place in Goethe's oeuvre. The French translation preserves the original's speculative quality and restrained tone, making it suitable as material for foreign-language reading and comparative literature study. Readers can use it to observe how eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German literature was presented in a French context, and to undertake close reading around the title metaphor, character relationships, and ethical dilemmas. As a free electronic text, it is easy to search and compare, but it lacks the annotations and introduction of a modern translation, so readers need to supply background knowledge themselves.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. First learn about Goethe's life and the background of Elective Affinities, then enter the text.
  2. Compare with a Chinese translation or the German original, and pay attention to how the chemical metaphor of the title unfolds.
  3. Record the changing relationships among the four main characters and trace the development of the ethical conflict.
  4. After reading each chapter, return to the title and consider how "elective affinity" corresponds to the plot.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70

FAQ

Is this French edition of Elective Affinities suitable for French beginners? Not very suitable for complete beginners or elementary learners. The sentences are long, the thought is highly speculative, and it involves nineteenth-century social and ethical background. Readers with intermediate or higher French reading ability, working alongside a Chinese translation, will find it easier to grasp the plot and arguments.
Does the electronic edition include annotations or a guide? According to the information, this is a public-domain electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg, and the description does not mention annotations, an introduction, or modern editorial notes. If background knowledge is needed while reading, it is advisable to consult Goethe research materials separately or use an annotated edition for comparison.
What does the title "Elective Affinities" mean in the book? The title borrows the chemical concept of "affinity" between substances to metaphorically describe emotional attraction and the formation and dissolution of bonds between people. While reading, pay attention to how the combinations of characters are rearranged like chemical elements, and how this metaphor carries the ethical discussion.

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About the author

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832 Author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is a highly important writer in the history of German literature, whose work spans poetry, fiction and drama. The library holds 75 of his works, including the tragedy Faust: Der Tragödie erster Teil in several editions and translations, the epistolary novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther — Band 2, and the play Iphigeneia Tauriissa. Faust centers on a scholar's pact with the devil, combining philosophical reflection with poetic language; Die Leiden des jungen Werther uses the epistolary form to portray the conflict between personal feeling and social constraint. Goethe's works cover a wide range of subjects and combine lyricism with philosophical depth, exerting a profound influence on German literature and later European writing. Public information is limited, so biographical details are omitted here.