Novel
Effi Briest
Theodor Fontane · 1894
Opening lines
In Front des schon seit Kurfürst Georg Wilhelm von der Familie von Briest bewohnten Herrenhauses zu Hohen-Cremmen fiel heller Sonnenschein auf die mittagsstille Dorfstraße […]
In front of the manor house at Hohen-Cremmen, occupied by the von Briest family since the days of the Elector George William, bright sunshine fell on the village street, quiet at midday […]
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Effi Briest is only seventeen when, on her mother's advice, she marries Baron von Innstetten, twenty-one years her senior, who had once courted that mother in vain. She follows him to Kessin, a small town in Pomerania where he administers the district, and is bored there amid stiff social visits, the dog Rollo and the friendship of the pharmacist Gieshübler; she believes the house is haunted by a dead Chinese man. After the birth of her daughter, Major Crampas arrives, a former regimental comrade of her husband and his opposite in every respect.
Context
The novel was published from October 1894 to March 1895 in the Deutsche Rundschau, then in volume form in the autumn of 1895. It is regarded as a summit and a turning point of poetic realism: in it Fontane opens the way to the society novel to which Thomas Mann would give worldwide reach, and the name of the Buddenbrooks probably comes from a minor character in the book. The heroine was at first to be called Bertha Pappenheim. Gustaf Gründgens made a film of it in 1939, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder in turn brought it to the screen.
Who it is for
A novel of medium length, made mostly of conversations; what the characters leave unsaid counts as much as what they say.
Prizes and reception
It is ranked alongside Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary among the great European novels of marriage seen through a woman's eyes.