From its title (Wired Love) to its tagline (“‘The old, old story’—in a new, new way”), this Ella Cheever Thayer novel from 1880 sounds surprisingly modern.

Substitute texting for telegraphs or OKCupid usernames for telegraph operators’ initials, and the book could almost have been written today—except that its conclusion seems to process contemporary anxieties about technology a little better than we do.

Find out more in Clive Thompson’s insightful blog post about this “romance of dots and dashes.”