{"id":345,"date":"2015-02-10T11:54:48","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T10:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=345"},"modified":"2025-09-07T00:02:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:02:54","slug":"effi-briest-theodor-fontane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2015\/02\/effi-briest-theodor-fontane\/","title":{"rendered":"Effi Briest \u2022 Theodor Fontane"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

After Anna Karenina<\/em> and Madame Bovary<\/a>, Effi Briest<\/em> is now the third adulteress in the group. So far, none of these three novels has matched my very vague expectations of what awaited me. Each book has positively surprised me in its own way. And of course Fontane now has to measure up to Tolstoy and Flaubert\u2014that\u2019s clear\u2014because I read these books starting from the here and now without differentiating, which I naturally want to do in retrospect.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

First of all, I\u2019m very grateful that I didn\u2019t read a plot summary beforehand. That\u2019s what one usually does with books one buys. I didn\u2019t do that with Effi Briest<\/em>, because I simply wanted to read a book about the third well-known woman who so immorally gave herself over to extramarital lust. But the plot is the ultimate spoiler.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I quickly grew fond of Effi Briest, even if she isn\u2019t exactly a perfect person. Over the course of the book there were passages in which she wasn\u2019t particularly sympathetic to me. Quite deliberately, however, Fontane guides the image we form of Effi and consciously softens the impact of her darker sides. The book begins with Effi being married off to the considerably older Geert who\u2014just as in Anna Karenina<\/em>\u2014is an ambitious bureaucratic workhorse in public service and, as a district administrator, aspires to rise into the ministry. He isn\u2019t as dull as Emma\u2019s Charles (in Madame Bovary<\/em>), but rather the schoolmaster looking down on the sixteen-year-old Effi\u2014and, understandably, not exactly a thrill for such a young girl.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Very early in the book you get a feel for Effi\u2019s naivety and youth. From the following quote, the immature spirit of Effi\u2019s youth leaps clearly off the page:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I am\u2026 well, I\u2019m for equality and, of course, for tenderness and love. And if tenderness and love aren\u2019t possible, [\u2026], then I\u2019m for wealth and a distinguished house, a very distinguished one [\u2026]<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Geert takes Effi to a small, sleepy village in the provinces, where a sixteen-year-old girl simply has to be bored. That is precisely the plea, the lance that Fontane breaks for her throughout the entire book.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Fontane then does something I\u2019ve never experienced in a book before\u2014and it\u2019s simply brilliant. He tells the story in such a way that the reader feels they\u2019re getting a view of the couple\u2019s entire life from a neutral narrator. However, Fontane does not fill the whole space. Gaps arise that only become apparent in retrospect, and that lends the novel something deeply fascinating.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In Anna Karenina<\/em>, an emotional portrait of a woman in her social context is central; in Madame Bovary<\/em>, it\u2019s the wild striving for passion that shapes the story. In Effi Briest<\/em>, however, it is society\u2014its moral code\u2014and Fontane\u2019s pronounced social critique that take center stage. This is strongly reflected in the language as well, which is why I find a comparison with Tolstoy or Flaubert rather difficult. Effi Briest<\/em> is written in a straight line; there\u2019s no stream of consciousness that draws you into Tolstoy\u2019s novels like a current, nor the melody of language that Flaubert set ringing in my mind. Two thirds of the book depict a married life determined by social norms, functioning entirely according to those laws. No passion arises, even though Effi would certainly be capable of it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Only in the final third does the confrontation with the central theme arrive\u2014and even then in a very moderate form. But it is precisely in this steady straightness that there lies a powerful force that makes one shudder. One is grateful to live in a time when a woman can lead a self-determined life without a male-dominated society restricting her opportunities for fulfillment. I\u2019m convinced that this is exactly the goal Fontane wanted to achieve: to show how these structures can destroy women\u2019s lives.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In a dialogue between Geert and an acquaintance, Fontane names this central statement:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But in living with other people, something has formed, something that is simply there, and by whose paragraphs we\u2019ve gotten used to judging everything\u2014others and ourselves. And to violate it is impossible; society despises us, and in the end we do so ourselves and cannot bear it and put a bullet through our heads.<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The book thrives on numerous subtle allusions and double meanings, created through references to the literature of the time, Bible verses, and cultural frameworks. The appendix of this edition is extremely helpful here, offering explanations and quotations for every page.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Conclusion:<\/strong> I didn\u2019t find the first two thirds particularly exciting\u2014in places even boring. Only in the last hundred pages did the story gain momentum, but then with high quality. The language didn\u2019t captivate me the way Tolstoy\u2019s or Flaubert\u2019s did. However, Fontane achieves his aim with bravura: a socially critical examination of the role of women in society. Rightly an acknowledged and highly praised classic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Book information: <\/strong>Effi Briest<\/em> \u2022 Theodor Fontane \u2022 dtv Verlag \u2022 412 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783423124997<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary, Effi Briest is now the third adulteress in the group. So far, none of these three novels has matched my very vague expectations of what awaited me. Each book has positively surprised me in its own way. And of course Fontane now has to measure up to Tolstoy and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Effi Briest \u2022 Theodor Fontane”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Effi Briest \u2022 Theodor Fontane - lesestunden","description":"Nach Anna Karenina und Madame Bovary ist nun Effi Briest die dritte Ehebrecherin im Bunde. Bisher hat keiner dieser drei Romane meine sehr vage Vorstellung davo"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,20],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classics","category-reviews","tag-theodor-fontane"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/fontane_effi_briest.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}