The reception of Goethe's novel 'Die Wahlverwandtschaften' ('Elective Affinities') in 19th-century Britain is discussed, with a focus on the work of James Anthony Froude. Froude's 1849 novel 'The Nemesis of Faith,' based on Goethe's work, was publicly burnt at Oxford in 1849; Froude's translation of 'Die Wahlverwandtschaften' was published anonymously in 1854.
How the scientific notions underlying Goethe's Die Wahlverwandtschaften acquired new meanings in the English context of the ...