Elective Affinities

De: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Narrado por: Adriel Brandt

In his third novella, Johann Wolfgang Goethe explores the tension between spontaneous passion or “chemical attraction” and respect for the conventions of marriage.

Wealthy aristocrat Edward and his wife, Charlotte, invite The Captain, Edward’s childhood friend, and Charlotte’s niece, Ottilie, to their estate near Weimar. The Captain and Charlotte fall in love, as do Edward and Ottilie, who do not hesitate to consummate their infatuation; the results include infanticide, suicide by starvation, and death from a mysterious illness.

Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks

Really enjoyed the narration

I have long been a firm adherent to the rule that audiobooks should strictly remain as verbal representations of a text, rather than interpretive performances, by which I mean to imply- no dramatic character accents please; just read the text, with at most a mild emotive injection where the printed punctuation calls for it. Sometimes such flat readings can make denser and older texts a little tougher to discern, but I've always "read" audiobooks as a means to crush more text than I could ever find time for irl, not for casual dramatic entertainment; I want to to have my own reactions evinced by the text, not by the reading of the text.

But with this expert presentation of a slightly obscure Goethe has swayed my opinion: I can now decidedly stomach character accents if they are tactful and tasteful while remaining distinctly discernible, and also coherently maintained throughout the text, which is very much the case with Brant's performance here. At first I cringed to hear the Edward accent, but by the end I was converted. It definitely bolstered rather than subtracted from the presentation of this already outstanding novel.

Many thanks for creating an audio representation for Goethe beyond Werther and Faust! Please do Wilhelm Meister, the conversations with Eckerman, or even metamorphosis of plants, and I will eagerly purchase immediately!

Ottilia’s sacrifice

Walter Benjamin held this epic novel in high esteem. Ottilia is a symbol of moral/aesthetic power that transcends and redeems the legalistic and conventional norms and mores, not by opposition but by her own redemptive sacrificial death. By death she is united with her true love, Eduard. The fateful bond, as strong as that of the star crossed love between Romeo and Juliet, is not severed by death but is sealed forever by death, by the redemptive and transformative sacrificial death. In the symbolism of Otillia’s self sacrifice-her death must not be understood as a suicide-Goethe poignantly undermines Lutheran theology of grace while elevating the Johanian/Orthodox theology of the glorious death of the Cross. Truly her beauty is otherworldly, her purity worthy of the Lamb. The divine aesthetics and the moral purity in Kantian sense are joined in her sacrifice.

Psychological literature, excellent narration

I enjoyed this book very much and have already began to listen to it again. The narration offered not only a clear voice for each character but the kind of voice that suited each personality. The overall experience fitted the story, allowing me to think as I listened, think about human motivations and the themes behind the plot. I was disappointed in the author's choice of denouement. I almost convinced myself that this novel will be well before its time, which it was in some ways but not all the way. Still, this was my first exposure to Goethe, and it was intellectually and spiritually stimulating.

Bad mix

horrible eq on the voice of the narrator. made it very hard to listen to on speakers.

Weird performance, terrible novel, poor quality

Not a lot to love here. The translation is ancient. I think the first ever English translation of this novel so it is a very old fashioned read. And in the public domain so available free of royalties. But even if it was a more modern translation, the story is still about cardboard cutouts that stand in for people. The characters all live a privileged life and seem to remain untouched by life's difficulties even when the difficulties are quite severe. Real human emotion is talked about, but never shown to us in any of these characters.

The quality of the recording is extra quiet. I had it turned up to maximum to hear it and then switch to another normal volume audio book and nearly blow my eardrums out.

The performance is also not great. Really don't understand the weird British accent choices in this German book. Edward, one of the main characters, is voiced as a total ass which, in fairness, he is, but is maybe not as much of one as the narrator makes him. If the author had been narrating Tom Jones or some other picaresque novel, the accent choices would make more sense.