Any just appreciation of Goethe's art in The Elective Affinities must begin by recognizing that it is about Ottilie. For her sake the book was written. It is a study of a ignoble fate and beating its wings in hopeless misery until death endsthe struggle. The other characters are ordinary in their good sense and self-control, Edward ordinary in his moral flabbiness and his foolish infatuation. His death, to be sure, is unthinkable for such a man and does but testify to Goethe's art. The figure of Ottilie, like that of her was on sea or land. She is a creature of romance, and we learn without much surprise that her dead body performs miracles. One is reminded of medieval lady who is doomed to eat the heart of her crusading lover and then refuses all other food and dies. That Edward is quite unworthly of the girl's love, that the death of the child is no sufficient reason for her morbid remorse, is quite in the realm of normal psychology. A season of dreamy happiness, as she moves about in a world unrealized; then a terrible shock, and after that, remorse, renunciation, hopeleness, the will to die. Such is the logic of the tale. By Calvin Thomas, LL.D., Table of Contents Introduction to The Elective Affinities. The Elective Affinites. Shakespere and Again Shakespere. The Pedagogic Province. Winckelmann and His Age. Maxims and Reflections. Eckerman's Conversation with Goethe. Goethe's Correspondence with Wilhelm von Hummboldt and his Wife. Goethe's Correspondence with K.F. Zelter. GOETHE Keywords: The German Classics Volume 2, Johan Wolffang von Goethe, Shakespere, Elective Affinities, Calvin Thomas, tale, Death, Die, Romance, Ottilie, heart, art, Mignon, Love, Realm,

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