Arnold's book begins: "Are you afraid of dying? Have you ever worried about growing old, about becoming a burden to your children? Do you wonder how you would survive the loss of your spouse, a parent, a child? Is someone you love facing illness or death? Whether consciously or subconciously, every person inevitably faces these questions at one point or another. It is in search of answers to them that I have written this book."

Arnold searches for these answers in the stories of ordinary people he's known who have faced death. He tells each story well in that he doesn't over dramatize the circumstances or struggle to justify God's ways. Instead, he lets each life speak for itself and allows that death is a great mystery indeed.

After losing my father, I read several books about pain, loss, grieving, and death. I enjoyed this work because it featured many perspectives, allowing that death is very much an individual experience, shaped by upbringing and personality. It was instructive and comforting to read about how other Christians have faced tragedy and illness. I also like the way he included photographs of the people because it made me feel closer to them.

This is a quiet little book that you can read in a few sittings or savor bit by bit. It will leave you pondering life, death, and God's plan for creation. I appreciate Arnold's perspective because his sadness is tempered by his knowledge that the universe is ruled by a loving and merciful God who has not left death as the final word.

Sometimes it is hard to know what words to say when a friend is suddenly facing terminal illness or the loss of a loved one. A gift of this book is one way of saying 'I care'. We will all face tough things in life and eventually the end of our life, the stories in this book are about ordinary people who faced these moments with faith and courage.

I Tell you a Mystery; Life, Death, Eternity" with a foreword by Madeleine L'Engle is the best book that I found on the market dealing with Death, Dying and Bereavement. My family experienced a lot of death and we were hurting. We did not know how to deal with it. It seems like death and bereavement is something no one wants to talk about it. And even when one looses a beloved one like a parent or brother and sister one is expected in our Society to act normal within a few days. This all changed when we got a copy of "I Tell you a Mystery." The stories contained in this book everyone and anyone young and old can have real empathy with. I highly recommend this book to all ages. Even little children just love to read the stories which this book contains. Paul and Betty Winter

Like all the Dover editions I've seen--and I own quite a few--this is great value for the money, but for some reason they've printed this one in a slightly smaller format than, say, the Beethoven Sonatas, the Debussy album or the Chopin albums. WHY? The print is just small enough that an oldtimer like me has to squint and strain to see the notes. So, when I'm learning a piece from this book, I take it to the office and photocopy it, enlarging the pages 15% (which is about as big a size as will fit on a standard sheet of paper)--then it's just about right!

The Bach-Gesellschaft Edition, the definitive catalogue of the composer's keyboard (not organ) works, is reproduced in its entirety in this inexpensive edition by Dover. This is the best collection you will find of the Bach clavier canon outside of the Neue Bach Ausgabe catalog of his entire musical output. Though I have to admit that the print is rather small and difficult to read in places, I've grown accustomed to reading microscopic Baroque scores and had no unusual difficulty playing from the pages. Dover publishes great books at the lowest prices, from Thrift Editions of poetry, short stories, and novellas, to classical music scores, and this edition is perhaps the best value of the latter. Though not as 'standardized' as Schirmer and Carl Fischer, nor as studious as the Urtext version of Bach offered by that conservatory favorite G. Henle Verlag, Dover's Bach-Gesellschaft delivers enough bang for the buck (Bach) to win over both my wallet and a place in my score library.

P. S. This book is not recommended for beginners.

Bach's English Suites, French Suites, Partitas, Goldberg Variations, Inventions & Sinfonias in one well-produced volume. Priceless music for such a low price. It doesn't get much better than this.

I enjoyed the adventure and international intrigue of Johann Sorenson's "Diamond Lies."

There's a map of a obscure valley near the Serengeti in East Africa, an aging couple who discovered the secret of their success, their commitment fearing son, two strong women that love him, and a rhino poacher seeking the last of the great rhino horns. Throw in locations in San Francisco, Amsterdam, Paris and Africa, and you get globe-trotting action with plot twists that keep you guessing until the end.

I enjoyed "Diamond Lies" and found the map legend to be an interesting device in the role it played with John Erickson's quest to find his one true love. The novel was fast-paced and well-written, and the characters were multi-dimensional, even the villains Barzan and Moto. The subplots were effective as well, involving the lives of the elder Erickson's, and the environmental message that gave multiple sides of the issue.

There was some temporal weirdness with the prologue, which bothered me. Also, the Teri Clark character came across as insecure and high maintenance, and somewhat irritating. I would have liked more physical description of the characters. I also wanted more sensual atmosphere of the various locations, especially in the Africa section.

There were a number of sequences that were stunning, including a key action scene involving a river, wildebeests, and range rovers. I won't spoil it, but this part was as intense and exciting as anything I've read.

I'm looking forward to Johann Sorenson's next novel, and I recommend this one for fans of international adventure.

This is a great story and adventure. Mr. Sorenson does a fine job of keeping you guessing and on the edge of your seat. His characters are real, all too real in the case of the bad guy Barzan. The landscapes are vivid and easy to visualize. The story is timely and the adventure timeless. An easy read that will take you on the journey as it unfolds.

In his parents' home, John and his fiancee Teri are playing a competitive game of Scrabble with the winner determined by whether zebu is an African animal. To obtain a dictionary, John unlocks a forbidden room, his father's den. Teri pulls out a book, The Valley of the Rhinos, from a shelf. Falling out of the tome is what appears to be a treasure map. They make a copy of the map before placing it inside the book and returning it back on the shelf.

John feels the map is probably not real though he wonders if that is how his parents made their fortune. Even if it is genuine the idea that success can only occur if one's true love accompanied you on the quest seems ridiculous to him. On the other hand, the adventure of a lifetime for Teri and him is an ocean away. He persuades Teri that as soul mates they should go on this trip, but promises they will return in time for their wedding in two months. Perhaps they would reconsider their decision if they knew that the deadly danger from Barzon the poacher, other perils and meeting new people on this trek would have on their relationship

DIAMOND LIES is a superb romantic thriller that never slows down for an iota. The story line is fast-paced and loaded with action, romance, and escapades. The key characters including a couple of folks met during the quest seem authentic and add to the feel that the reader is on an African adventure. Johann Sorenson paints a vivid picture inside a strong plot worth reading by the Romancing the Stone crowd.

Harriet Klausner

I won't bother to review Goethe's "Faust". It's ability to withstand the test of time and invade our lexicon is proof enough of its greatness and worth more than anything I could say. However, I would like to comment specifically on the Norton Critical Edition.

I was not particularly satisfied by this edition. Having never read Faust before, I was expecting this edition to contain within its copious annotations helpful summaries of what was going on in the play. Particularly in Part II, where things are often quite disorienting, a first-time reader would often be lost without some outside help. Unfortunately, this edition, despite all the extras it added, didn't contain what I was looking for.

If you are deeply interested in Faust, and familiar with the story itself, the annotations are amazingly detailed, describing the sources and motivations that guided Goethe. If you are a casual reader, however, they will rarely help you understand what is going on if you get confused. This edition is geared towards the scholarly, not the casual.

"Vainly in the day time labored, pick and shovel, clink and strike." Goethe worked on Faust for much of his career, but composed some of the best of Part II in a time of life when most are in their rocking chairs or in the intensive care ward of the local nursing home. Goethe in his late seventies and early eighties would rise in the early dawn and compose some of the best poetry written. "I would elevate my mind to a kind of productivity which brought all this forth, in a full state of consciousness and which pleases me still, even though perhaps I could never swim again in such a river." It has been said that German poetry is difficult to translate or untranslatable, and this seems true with some translations of Faust, but the Norton contains a superb effort by Walter Arndt which appears always so on the mark that one suspects Arndt actually embellishes the German, but, rather than quibble over accuracy, it is all so good you will hardly care. Goethe builds upon the medieval Faust legend as a skeleton for his own writing in epic-poem style with various meter fashioned to fit the subject. Faust, weary of the ways of the world (one can almost hear the 60s hippy) embarks on a journey of self-discovery, skirt chasing and empire building finally ending in his 100th year in the ultimate trip, with a little help from his friend, Goethe. This composition is remarkable in innumerable ways. One can use a thesaurus of superlatives: wonderful imagery, perfect choice of words, peerless imagination, beautiful poetry, a unity to the whole which is memorable, as well as numerous wonderful scenes and lines, and always an intelligence that seems to absorb and understand everything. Of course, one can differ with Goethe philosophically. There are other angles from which to view life than Faust and his Mephistophelean foil. And Faust, which contains all the universal ingredients, can be faulted at times, dwelling too much on the antique philosophy, politics and literary questions which interested Goethe in his long life. But all this seems irrelevant to Faust as a work of art, permanently canonized for its beauty and writing alone, whatever disparagement or praise one might hold for its meaning or content. The Norton Edition is edited by Cyrus Hamlin whose interpretive notes are scholarly, contain a subtle respect for Goethe, and are in themselves a book worth reading. The selections of Goethe comment and scholarship range from the brilliant to the outer eliptics of literary criticism, and the included illustrations and Goethe letters on composition are a nice touch. The work of Hamlin and the Arndt translation which here frame Goethe as the main event make the Norton Critical Edition of Faust (2000) one of the better books one is likely to pick up.

Certainly, the sixty years Goethe spent writing volumes I & II paid off. Unlike Shakespeare, there is a moral lesson which sums the human experience regardless of one's actual circumstances. By illusion and yearning are we enmeshed in lifes toils, only to find the simplicity of innocence and life's early beauty, before we possessed, was the greatest of our soul. Though greatly influenced by Shakespeare, Goethe takes the life's tale to another level which is wrapped in other dimensions of past, present, and future, in addition to heavens and hells. The Faustian choice is one made everyday and is weaved into every moment, until death and afterwards.
An understanding of Indian philosophy (i.e., Buddhism, Hinduism) and the Sanskrit texts brings a deeper depth of understanding, with their complexity and breadth giving greater meaning to a highly mystical and even transcendental text.

This book is an interesting diary by a private in the German Bayreuth regiment, who served in America during 1777-1781. Dohla was captured at Yorktown, imprisoned in Maryland and not repatriated until 1783. Particularly poignant are examples of how German officers maintained brutal discipline and this brutality undermined morale. The diary is filled with desertion after desertion. Relations between British and German troops appeared decent. There is only limited discussion of combat operations in this account because Dohla's unit usually seemed to miss most actions for one reason or another, but there is plenty of skirmishing. Dohla's comments on America are interesting from the point of view of the common soldier. Unfortunately, there are no maps.

This diary makes clear the miscoceptions and wrong ideas
about the hessian troops, the most significant that they were not
mercenaries, and they did not want to be in british service in the first place.The author gives excellent discriptions of events, and writes in such a way that the reader gets a very good picture of his personal life and character. He and his unit missed most important combat action, but the few they participated in, like the siege of yorktown, are described in immense detail. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who is interested in the daily life, opinions, and observations of a revolutionary war soldier.

Great book to see what a soldier from the 'enemy' was experiencing. From the dull days ("Stood watch"), to days of battles and the deaths of commrades, it really gives a good insight as to the thoughts and daily rituals of someone who was there. An added bonus for me, living in New York, was the descriptions of the East Coast, from Virginia to Rhode Island, given by someone who stood here 225 years ago and marveled at America's bounty. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to see what the "other side" saw.

Marcia Davenport's "Mozart" is indeed wonderfully written and truly was a labor of love. She has a gift for drawing the reader into the book; her wit (and, on occasion, biases) can be noted throughout the book. Davenport doesn't get you to know ABOUT Mozart; she gets the reader to KNOW him.
The reader will find himself emotionally attached to Mozart. He or she will rejoice when he rejoices and will feel sorrow when the Austrian prodigy felt sorrow (which, sadly, was not uncommon.) I truly enjoyed reading this book...

...which is why I'm sorry to say that it is not the best biography.

The work is contains many myths and legends that were masqueraded (often by musicologists) as facts in the past. The author makes use of a letter ("Letter to Baron B.") that was proven fraudulent. This particular letter, concocted by a Friedrich Rochlitz in the early 19th century, was dubbed a forgery even before Davenport's time. (Mozart's first reliable biographer, Otto Jahn, acknowledged this.)

This is not to discredit Davenport; she researched all she could. Again, many otherwise reliable musicologists of Davenport's day regarded the above, as well as other myths and legends found in the Davenport biography, as bona fide information. Many other biographers fell victim to this: Alfred Einstein and Maynard Solomon included. It wasn't until the 1980's that further research revealed that many so-called facts about Mozart were nothing more than myth, and that musicologists and biographers alike put a stop to myth-propagation.

I recommend the reader study this book alongside a biography written within the last decade or so... or better yet, obtain a copy of "The Mozart Myths: a Critical Reassessment" by William Stafford. It will allow the reader to filter the fiction from the fact in "Mozart".

With all this said, "Mozart" truly is a wonderful book, even though it isn't an excellent biography. If you're willing to study "Mozart" and compare it to more authoritative works as you're reading it, you should definitely purchase it. I think you'll find that, despite its shortcomings, it is a charming work.

"No biographer, no commentator, critic, or interpreter can ever reveal Wolfgang Mozart entirely. Every attempt to know him truly, to relive his life, is incomplete without his own musical revelations."

Although that sentiment could not be more accurate, this biography by Marcia Davenport, simply entitled Mozart, brings us about as close as we can get to knowing and understanding this musical genius solely through a 400-page biographical account. In preparing for the writing of this biography, Davenport retraced every journey Mozart made, saw every dwelling in which he had lived, every theatre in which audiences first heard his works performed, and every library and museum that possessed useful manuscripts. In the foreword, she asserts, "I think I know what he looked like, how he spoke, what he did day by day."

Throughout the book, we too get a sense for Mozart the composer and Mozart the man. His great musical works did not emerge from a vacuum; rather, they are the products of a man deeply affected by a unique combination of experiences spanning from his prodigious childhood days of touring throughout Europe to his last days in which he wrote his great Requiem (K. 626), a piece he knew he was composing for his own death. We worry with him through his difficulties with debt and the constant onslaught of disgruntled creditors, and we delight with him when he glows with amorousness for some new love interest. We rejoice with him at the success in Prague of his great operas Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, and we mourn with him as Wolfgang attempts fruitlessly to receive a much-desired court appointment and recognition worthy of his talent. We carouse with him when he lightheartedly indulges in time with good friends; we are spectators at the heart-wrenching deaths of his mother, father, and a number of children who could not survive infancy.

The book is thorough, accurate, and engagingly informative in its narrative of Mozart's life. Though sometimes bland, the language Davenport uses is appropriately simple; quite admirably, she resists the impulse to indulge in the romanticized and flowery rhetoric with which many authors approach Mozart's miraculous genius. Her graceful writing style lets the characters speak for themselves rather than overpowering them with her own bravura.

Davenport also frequently quotes letters written to and from Mozart, thus providing internal proof for her assertions, as well as supplying additional insight into Wolfgang's personality and wit. Davenport quotes from a letter written by Mozart to his wife, Constanze, in which Wolfgang bemoans his ever-growing debt, then adds a post-script: "Tears rained upon the paper as I wrote the foregoing page, but now let us cheer up! Catch!-an astonishing number of kisses are flying about! The devil!-I see a whole crowd of them, too. Ha, ha! I have just grabbed three-they are delicious!" Such blithely clever passages are not uncommon in Mozart's letters, even when he is at his most miserable. Davenport's numerous references to such letters greatly enhance the lucidity of our perception of Mozart.

One weakness in the biography's articulation, however, occurs in Davenport's copious use of foreign words and phrases, for which she offers no translation. Those who are not moderately proficient in German, Italian, and French will miss some of the book's sly humor and more vivid descriptions, although the use of foreign phrases is not significant enough to diminish substantially a reader's understanding of the book.

For those interested in Mozart's life but who have not done much reading on him, this book is a lovely resource filled with such an abundance of information so as to transform such a novice into an expert. For those who are already Mozart aficionados, this book may not offer much new insight, but the depth and detail with which Davenport describes events may give such readers fresh perspective and heightened understanding. For the musician who enjoys Mozart's works, this biography is particularly intriguing, not only for the reasons noted above but also because the book mentions most of Mozart's great compositions while describing the time during which he produced them. For a performer or an analyst, such information as Mozart's present circumstances and frame of mind while composing a specific piece can be extremely helpful in interpreting his music.

This meticulously complete and factual account of Mozart's life is a valuable resource for lovers of Mozart and of his music, whether reading for study or for pleasure.

From an avid reader in general, and of biographies and history in particular, I found this book remarkably hard to put down after the very first page. I agree with Barnes & Nobel when the wrote "The result is a biography of such commanding stature that it has remained unassailable since its publication in 1932." What makes this book so special is that it doesn't tell you about Mozart, it is Mozart. You feel as if you are living your life along side Mozart's. Davenport's writing, woven throughout the scores of quotations from letters written by Mozart and those around him, is so vivid that you can actually see Mozart's life unfold in your imagination from the beginning until the end. And what about the subject of the book - Mozart. In my opinion, Mozart is one of the most spectacular individuals the World has ever known. If you are not a Mozart fan now, you most assuredly will be after reading this book. He seems to have been not only an ungodly genius, but a generous individual with an incredible sense of humor as well. This book should be studied at the high school level. I really believe teenagers would not only comprehend Mozart, but would also find him similar to themselves from a social point of view. I bet it would be real eye-opener to many of these students that such an apparently laid-back, rebellious and "party animal" type of person could create such serious and Ingenious work. This book is a must read for all!

This is not a bad introduction to the life and music of J.S. Bach, however it is nowhere as well written or informative as Christoph Wolff's biography. I found myself falling to sleep reading Boyd, but the Wolff kept me interested all the way. Wolff also presents the death of Bach's parents as a much more central experience, which I found Boyd tended to place less significance on. This is not a poor book, it is just that the Wolff bio is so much better.

Bach scholarship was turned upside down in the 1950s by the acceptance of new scholarship by Alfred Durr and Georg Dadelsen which established a new chronology and authenticity for Bach's music. It took about 30 years for Bach biography to catch up and digest the implications of the new discoveries. Bach biographies published before 1960 are frequently inaccurate in many details, and this include Spitta's famous 3 volume study. Of the recent books on Bach, Professor Boyd's book is one of the very best and the place for anyone with an interest in Bach to start their exploration of his life and work.

This book provides an analyical and important summary of the greatest of all 18th century composers. Boyd succeeds in providing the life of Bach in context with the musical conditions of 18th century Germany, but adds his own perspective as seen from the end of the 20th century. I found this book most enjoyable, along the likes of other biographies of Bach, including Spitta and Schweitzer. To be added to the Bach Plucked! web site's recommended reading list.

Michael Stitt

Sallie Ketcham's wonderful "Bach's Big Adventure" is that rare breed of book which manages to tie together a true story from a major historical figure's childhood with terrific illustrations--and throw in a palatable moral as well.

J. S. Bach apparently was quite a confident young man, boasting by the age of ten to all who would listen that he and he alone was the greatest organist in all Germany. His confidence pierced by the sarcasm and truthfulness of his elder brother (who reared him once their parents had died), Bach decides that he will go to hear a concert by the man his brother says IS the greatest--an organist named Reincken.

Suffice it to say that Bach is humbled by the experience and almost hesitates to join Reincken at the organ--but the elder man is encouraging and soon the two are playing a rollicking tune, much to the delight of both. Reincken cheers the young Bach who does, in time, become the greatest organist in Germany and beyond.

Ketcham's tale is well told, with generous doses of humor. Timothy Bush's watercolor illustrations are cartoonlike and serve to further humanize this great musician. The book is a success and a treat to peruse.

Probably best suited for 5-8 year-olds. It's the story of young Johann Sebastian Bach and his desire to be the greatest organist in all of Germany and the world. Through very good illustrations, and a compelling story, children and adults will be fascinated by this prodigy. The author passes on interesting tidbits of information of Bach's childhood that make for very good reading. However, children younger than 5 will probably tire easily of this story, since it runs a bit long.

This book is well written. Children will want to read it again and again. The author's humor adds sparkle to this historically based novel.

The life of the man who revolutionised book production and arguably gave rise to The Renaissance - for without an easy means of spreading knowledge, how can science advance?

The book is written in the style of a man in his near-blind, bitter old age dictating to his young scribe, so it has that detached feel to it and a relatively stilted delivery. However, this is not unpleasing or intrusive, rather, it gives the book an appeal that it may have lacked if told in the third person as a story, rather than as a biography. It also enables him to speak his mind (as old men do), rationalising his youthful actions as 'justification' of the end result - the greatest invention since the wheel - and at the same time decrying those who wished to benefit unjustly from his industry.
Worst of all, he fears that the name of Gutenberg would be forgotten forever, with others claiming the work for themelves - we, as readers, know this is not the case and the old man can rest easy.

The bones of the book are true - there is some information on Gutenberg's life - but the bulk of the tale is necessarily invention by the author.
Nevertheless, that invention has the ring of truth - one can imagine these things influencing the mind of the young Gutenberg and spurring him to devise his later modifications to the printing process - specifically moveable type - that were to change the human world for ever, despite severe opposition from the church and others.
Perhaps the most outstanding point that comes across is the cost of books in those times; a Bible cost several year's wages - after all, that's the time a scribe took to write it - Gutenberg's invention reduced the cost radically and ensured consistent quality, no mistakes, an unlimited supply and, more to the point, affordability ... to the Church this was the very essence of hubris and heresy, if not devilry! Thank goodness their narrow minds did not prevail.

A very pleasant read.***.

With his clever title, implying, simultaneously, Gutenberg's justification of his life as it nears its end, his judgment by posterity, and a typesetter's spacing of words so that both left and right margins are even, Morrison sets the tone for this fascinating story about Johann Gutenberg and his development of the first printing press. Probably the invention which was most responsible for the spread of knowledge from about 1460 till the development of the computer five hundred years later, the printing press was a far more clandestine and potentially subversive invention than one might imagine, and its creation, as Morrison shows, was fraught with peril, financially, legally, and intellectually.

Beginning as the first-person recollections of Gutenberg as an old man in 1464, as he thinks about his end-of-life exile in Eltville, not far from Mainz, the novel establishes both Gutenberg's desire to be remembered and his loneliness. Life for the inventor of something as revolutionary as the printing press has not been easy. Always in debt, never able to repay his creditors, willing to sacrifice the woman he loves for his ambition, and at the mercy of both the guilds, who have a vested interest in having his invention fail, and the church which fears the potential power of a secular press, Gutenberg's entire life has been a fight. Creditors constantly take him to court, and he often has to start over.

In clear, deceptively simple, and sometimes lyrical prose, Morrison recreates the physical, social, and intellectual environment in which Gutenberg and his acquaintances operate. Gutenberg's first person recollections are sometimes ingenuous, usually honest, occasionally apologetic, and always driven by his ambition "to help words fly as far as doves," by promoting the successful development of his press.

Though the actual Johann Gutenberg is something of a mystery, Morrison adds muscle and tooth to the skeletal framework of what is known, creating a character which, if not realistic, is certainly plausible. Though parts of the book, such as a section about the making of type may not be intriguing to all readers, Morrison sandwiches the technical sections between more personal dramas, like Gutenberg's love interests and the machinations of his enemies to gain his machines. Homely details add color to what might otherwise be a black and white exposition about an arcane subject, while the archaic and formal language helps to create a sense of time and place. Every person who loves or buys books celebrates in some way, however distantly, the achievements of Gutenberg. In this intriguing novel, author Morrison celebrates them without reservation and brings them to life.

I'm thinking: Some readers may lay this book aside because its language has a slight but deliberate sound of being translated from a medieval manuscript.

Get over it. This book is a marvel.

Gutenberg, airing his "inky linen" in public, never gives himself the worse of any story he tells. He's no genius, he scratches where he itches, he calculates and keeps one step ahead of the sheriff.

But he is a passionate craftsman. Five hundred fifty years later, His bible -- here in DC the Library of Congress displays a perfect copy of vellum -- is an astonishment.

Congratulations to Blake Morrison for this book.

This is a curious and interesting mix between novel and essay, written when Goethe was sixty (he lived much longer). Edward and Charlotte, aristocrat widowers, get married. They live in a beautiful castle surrounded by huge properties. Life there is easy and fun, since their main occupation is to remodel their estate and throw parties and entertainments. Then the Captain, a friend of Edward's who is down on his luck but also a smart guy, is invited by Edward to come and live with them while he is back on track. Charlotte thinks it is a good opportunity to have come with them her niece, Otilia, a pretty, shy and nice girl. Both guests turn out to be useful and likable, and the four of them get along well. That is, until the elective affinities are set to work. Charlotte and the Captain, as well as Otilia and Edward, have affinities of personality, tastes and approach to life, and that draws them together: they fall in love. As the situation becomes untenable, the Captain finds a job and leaves. Edward retires to antoher house he owns. Then Charlotte gives birth to a child she conceived with Edward and, when he knows it, leaves for war. It turns out that the child resembles the Captain and Otilia, because Edward was thinking of Otilia and Charlotte was thinking of the Captain at the moment of conception (ha!). After some time, the Captain and Edward talk, and decide to speak to Charlotte, proposing divorce. I won't spoil the ending.

With this novel, Goethe tries to demonstrate that love is not a matter of conscious decision-making; that we can not control at all who we fall in love with, and that it is absurd to try to fight against it (note: it is not a defense of promiscuity, but an argumentation about an undeniable truth). This, then, is a novel with a strong point to make, and successfully so. Goethe is a good writer, a great one indeed, and this novel is important, especially when you put it in the context of the Romantic movement of the time. The story is interesting, the more so because it is carefully designed to prove Goethe's point of view.

First published in 1809, Goethe's novel "Elective Affinities" is a disturbingly dark work about rational people driven to distraction by passion and love. The novel seems to be as much influenced by 'The Tale of Foolish Curiosity' found in "Don Quixote" (chapters 33-35) as by Goethe's own marital difficulties. In the novel, Goethe explores the nature of love, and questions whether we have any choice over who we love - or over anything at all.

"Elective Affinities" is the story of two married aristocrats, Eduard and Charlotte, who spend their time and money in general indolence, tinkering with the land on their estate. A friend of Eduard's, the Captain, has fallen into economic instability, and Eduard suggests that they invite the Captain into their home until he can reestablish himself. Charlotte initially objects, but sees it as an opportunity to withdraw Ottilie, her niece, from an unproductive school experience. Under the auspices of doing good turns for their friends, Eduard and Charlotte unwittingly throw the listless harmony of their lives into chaos.

When the passionate Eduard meets the youthful, energetic Ottilie, and the stoical Charlotte meets the likewise prudent Captain - the scientific principle of Elective Affinities that gives the novel its name begins to take effect. The results of introducing two new elements into a closed system makes up the action of the remainder of the novel. Among other things, the novel examines and subtly criticizes the state of class relations in Germany in the early nineteenth century, the limitations of children's education, and matters of faith.

Goethe's "Elective Affinities" is a quick read - Hollingdale's translation is user-friendly, becoming ornate only when faith to the original seems to demand it. Though not as famous as Goethe's "Sorrows of Young Werther," "Elective Affinities" is certainly worth a read.

If I were to teach a comparative literature class, this work would definitely be on the agenda. It is one of the true classics of Romantic art. We tend to forget that in his own era, Goethe was regarded as the preeminent genius of European letters. There is ample reason for the adulation. Whether writing a travelogue (The Italian Journey), a play (Faust), or a novel (Wether, Elective Affinities, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship), Goethe is the consummate artist. Personally, my only complaint about Goethe was that he didn't think much of Beethoven's music. Maybe we can attribute it to genius jealousy. However you feel about the man, you can not call yourself well-read if you haven't at least exposed yourself to Goethe's writing. Give this one a chance and you'll probably want to read more by this great (and I don't use that term loosely) writer.