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From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Elective Affinities (German: Die Wahlverwandtschaften) is an 1809 novel written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, condemned by contemporaries for its "immoral" thesis that love and human bonding has chemical origins. The novel is based on the metaphor of affinities human passions being governed or regulated by the laws of chemical affinity, and examines whether or not the science and laws of chemistry undermine or uphold the institution of marriage, as well as other human social relations.
