![]() ![]() ![]() When the Captain arrives, he and Edward begin work on a scientific project. Though Charlotte at first objects, she eventually gives in with the condition that she is allowed to invite Ottilie, the orphaned daughter of a close friend, to stay with them as well. Edward wants to invite the Captain to stay with them. Edward receives word from his good friend, the Captain, informing him that the Captain has fallen on hard times and needs a place to live. Charlotte’s daughter from her first marriage, Luciana, is placed in a good boarding school. ![]() ![]() Edward and Charlotte are married to each other soon after and settle down to a peaceful and happy life together. Their first marriages are short-lived, as their spouses die in short order. However, both are forced by their families to marry other people. The characters at the center of the novel are Edward and Charlotte, two young nobles who have long been in love with each other. Goethe extends this idea to human attraction and compatibility to explore whether the laws of chemistry or science provide support for the institutions of marriage and monogamy. The title is a reference to the scientific phenomenon in which types of chemicals show a preference to combine with certain substances over others. Elective Affinities (1809) is German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s third novel. ![]()
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