Pages 311-12: "...in the graveyard Ebert came upon him reading Goethe's "Elective Affinities"



Still from the Taviani brothers' 1996 film of "Elective Affinities"




Movie poster for the film



1811 illustration of characters from the novel

Recent book cover for Elective Affinities

Portrait of Goethe, 1828, by Stieler

From pages 311-312 of the book:  "Seeing Sarah and Mme. Cendre together, and the tear-falling exuberance that Sarah felt for the old woman, gave me pause to reflect on how changed Sarah was, on how lovely both these women, at opposite ends of the age spectrum, looked and felt and talked. I thought of the book Owen was reading at the time of our arrival here in the Vaucluse, when in the graveyard Ebert came upon him reading Goethe's Elective Affinities, and I thought of the young ward, Ottilie, who falls in love with the lord of the manor, and I remembered trying to identify her emotion, which was head-over-heels in love times ten, and knowing the emotion was so strong that it overcame her ability to express it, to eat, to sleep, to function normally.  And I remembered how she began to shake, she cried, she was besotted by the terror of her love."


(From Michael Dirda, Barnes & Noble Review.com--  "Elective Affinities" refers to the chemical attraction of elements.  [It] is, above all, an elegant book, with something of the stylized formality of a baroque opera by Gluck or one of Watteau's paintings.... The modern reader will need to slow down to appreciate its somewhat austere beauty. The narration is unemotional, heavily descriptive, and by contemporary bestseller standards, even somewhat colorless and flat. ...Goethe keeps his overall tone serenely august.)

Page 310 "It was a song made popular by Frederic Mistral..."

Young Frederic Mistral

Mistral in later life

Alphonse Daudet & Frederic Mistral, 1900

The award-winning Frederic Mistral Rose.
Also known as The Children's Rose

From page 310 of the book:  Marie Cendre, a changed woman since her friendship with Sarah, clapped rhythmically to our entrance, and sang in a throaty, old woman's voice:

Nous sommes des amis, des frères,
Étant les chanteurs du pays!
Tous des amis, joyeux et libres,
De la Provence tous épris...

It was a song made popular by Frederic Mistral and his friends, celebrating the life of the Provençals. She held Ebert’s hand affectionately, as he sat down beside her. He accepted a glass of wine from Sarah.

(Translation: "We are friends, brothers/Being country crooners/All happy and free/In Provence all are in love.")

Page 304 "...Robert the Pious was talked about..."

Tomb of Robert the Pious

Painting depicting the excommunication of Robert the Pious

From page 304 of the book:  I wondered if on these very steps Robert the Pious was talked about; how he had been forced by the pope to give up the woman he loved and return to the woman he was forced into marrying in order to keep the crown and himself from continued excommunication.  He had died broken-hearted and everyone all over France had grieved for the love of their king.  Marriage and love haven't changed much over a thousand years.  Perhaps Ebert or his characters would say it has become worse.

Page 303 "...it was widely believed...that Mary Magdalene...had come to the Mediterranean coast..."

Cave of Mary Magdalene, in Languedoc-Rousillion, France

Inside the Cave of Mary Magdalene

From page 303 of the book:  Father Revenant once told me it was widely believed in Southern France that Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, had come to the Mediterranean coast of France to bring Christianity to the Gauls. He found it stretched one's faith when the country folk of the 10th century added Lazarus to the story, and said it would take more than a couple of old God-enshrouded Galilean women to bring the effort any tangible success.


[Photos are courtesy of Lee Howard.  (c) 2099. Used by permission.  You can visit the photostream at Flickr by clicking here.]