Elective Affinities

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1749–1832 · Germany

Originally Die Wahlverwandtschaften (German)

Why it matters

Two couples recombine like chemical elements in Goethe's coolest, strangest novel: desire treated as a law of nature. A favorite of Benjamin and the modernists, it reads more contemporary than almost anything from its century.

At a glance

Cool, aphoristic prose treating human passion with clinical, scientific detachment.