Effi Briest
(Paperback)
Available Formats
Publishing Details
Effi Briest
By (Author) Theodor Fontane
Introduction by Helen Chambers
Notes by Helen Chambers
Translated by Helen Chambers
Translated by Hugh Rorrison
Penguin Books Ltd
Penguin Classics
30th November 2000
United Kingdom
Classifications
Physical Properties
Paperback
256
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 15mm
191g
Description
Unworldly young Effi Briest is married off to Baron von Innstetten, an austere and ambitious civil servant twice her age, who has little time for his new wife. Isolated and bored, Effi finds comfort and distraction in a brief liaison with Major Crampas, a married man with a dangerous reputation. But years later, when Effi has almost forgotten her affair, the secret returns to haunt her, with fatal consequences. Considered to be Fontane's greatest novel, Effi Briest is a humane, unsentimental portrait of a young woman torn between her duties as a wife and mother and the instincts of her heart.
Reviews
It's very moving, and it's incredibly funny ... I wasn't prepared for the wit. Stupendous on so many levels -- Matt Wolff
A stunningly moving, beautiful, witty and urbane novel: I was blown away by it. A wonderful translation * Kate Saunders *
Author Bio
Theodor Fontane (1819-98) was a German novelist and potitical reporter. Along with EFFI BRIEST, Fontane is remembered for FRAU JENNY TREIBEL (1892), an ironic criticism of middle-class hypocrisy and small-mindedness. Hugh Rorrison has published extensively on modern German theatre and teaches German film at the University of Leeds. Helen Chambers organised the first conference on English translations of Fontane in 1992 and teaches German at the University of St Andrews.
