Adaptations
In 1979, director Francis Ford Coppola, in the grip of clinical manic depression and anxiety over his incomplete opus Apocalypse Now, and while purportedly under the influence of his girlfriend, screenwriter Melissa Mathison, proposed making a "ten-hour film version of Goethe's Elective Affinities, in 3D".
John Banville's 1982 novel "The Newton Letter" adapts the story to Ireland (description by Gordon Burgess can be found in "German life and letters" April 1992.
The 1993 play Arcadia, by British playwright Tom Stoppard, is a modern-day remake of Elective Affinities, albeit with a twist. The play takes place in modern times and 1809, Goethe's time; characters are replaced subtly, e.g. 'The Captain' becomes 'The Naval Captain'; and the chemical affinity becomes updated in the play with discussion on the second law of thermodynamics, chaos theory, among other subjects; albeit the play still holds to the idea that the characters of reactive entities, discussing ideas such as the "heat" of interactions between the characters.
Robin Gordon's 1995 short story "Leaves in the Wind" adapts the story to modern England, with Edward and Charlotte as an academic couple.
In 1996, a film version was made, entitled The Elective Affinities, by director Paolo Taviani.
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