Novel Affinities: Composing the Family in the German Novel, 1795–1830 by Sarah Vandegrift (review)

Sarah Vandegrift Eldridge's Novel Affinities connects several cultural phenomena of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Germany, including changes in the structure of the family, shifts in biological theories of reproduction, reform of the laws governing inheri tance, and new approaches to raising and educating children, and explores their relationship to the rise of the novel during this period. Eldridge deftly argues for a complex web of mutual influences between these cultural shifts and the literary form of the novel. The literary works she examines include canonical novels such as Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werther, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, and Die Wahlverwandschaften, which provide the scaffolding for her analysis. She also examines a number of lesser-known but nonetheless culturally influential novels by Clemens Brentano, Johann Jakob Engel, Karoline Fischer, August Lafontaine, Friederike Unger, Wilhelmine Karoline von Wobeser, and Caroline von Wolzogen.

Eldridge's analysis is very much attuned to recent developments in eighteenth-century German studies, in which the examination of family relationships and gender roles within literary and cultural contexts has played an increasingly important part. Her work also contributes to the ongoing debates about the scope and definition of the Bildungsroman, an elusive category in German studies and European literature more generally. Wisely, Eldridge does not attempt to resolve these debates or provide the ultimate definition of the Bildungsroman, but instead moves the discussion in a different direction by emphasizing the protagonist's growth through interaction with various biological and non-biological family groupings rather than his or her isolated individual development, and by examining a wide range of novels, some but not all of which have been classified as Bildungsromane.

The book contributes to scholarly discussions about the formation of the novel in the context of related cultural developments. Its ideas are clearly expressed and well supported by textual evidence. The first part focuses on the interaction among biological, pedagogical, and novelistic innovations. Eldridge details the shift in theories of generation from the model of "preformation," which holds that all the parts of an organism exist, in miniature, from its earliest stages of development, to the model of "epigenesis," which posits a process by which new parts or organs can form. She then links the epigenetic model with developments in the area of pedagogy that emphasized the uniqueness of each child and its potential to change as a result of societal and familial influences. These pedagogical ideas are then related to the shift in parent-child relations that came about from a new emphasis on affectionate bonds as the basis for marriage and family. According to Eldridge, the novel both reflects these cultural developments and opens up the possibility of imagining new realities. Particularly interesting is the parallel she draws between the Bildung (education or development) of the protagonists in the novels she examines and the ways in which the texts engage the reader. Just as the novels' plots de-emphasize blood connections in favour of affective, non-biological relationships, so readers are encouraged to engage with the text and draw their own connections or conclusions from the narrative.

The second part of the book explores "testation" in its dual sense of transmission of property and bearing witness. Examining inheritance laws as codified in the 1794 Allgemeines Landrecht für die preußischen Staaten (General State Laws for the Prussian States), Eldridge concludes that the new laws generally favour younger over older generations and the rights of individuals to bequeath their property as they see fit. She ties this development to novelistic plots that explore complicated cases of transmission, such as those involving orphaned children and non-biological guardians. What is transmitted is often not simply property but also what Eldridge calls "origin stories," intended to create links be tween generations. One instance where complications arise in the process of transmission is when a female author without children tells her story as a...