Elective Affinities by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The 19th-century scientific term for the chemical attraction of certain substances to each other above others makes for an unlikely title for a Romantic novella, or so it would seem. But Johann Wolfgang Goethe's classic work uses the chemical metaphor to explore the conflict between bonds created by society and the bonds that are formed through chemical attractions. Controversial in its day, as it lent itself to the interpretation that love could be reduced to a chemical attraction, the novella continues to be relevant. Despite a shift in mores, contemporary readers will recognise the emotional pressures and the problems that Goethe explores through his characters and the Romantic landscape.

Classics corner: The Art of Sinking in Poetry by Alexander Pope
Aspiring poets and would-be litérateurs would do well to acquire a copy of this new edition of Pope's sharp satirical "how-not-to" manual on writing poetry . Modelled on classical treatises on aesthetics, the work analyses the form to list some of the worst sins committed in the name of poetry. Ostensibly written by Martinus Scriblerus , the group pseudonym used by members of the Scribblerian club which also included Jonathan Swift and John Gay, Pope's essay explores the "art of sinking". The targets of his satire are the poets who use grand rhetorical devices but achieve not the intended peaks of the sublime but inadvertent troughs of the ridiculous.