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Effi Briest
Telling the tragic tale of a socially advantageous but emotionally ruinous match, Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest is translated from the German by Hugh Rorrison with an introduction by Helen Chambers in Penguin Classics.
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. In taut, ironic prose Fontane depicts a world where sexuality and the will to enjoy life are stifled by vain pretences of civilization, and the obligations of circumstance. Considered to be his greatest novel, this is a humane, unsentimental portrait of a young woman torn between her duties as a wife and mother and the instincts of her heart.
Hugh Rorrison's clear, modern translation is accompanied by an introduction by Helen Chambers, which compares Effi with other literary heroines such as Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina.
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.
If you enjoyed Effi Briest you may like Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, also available in Penguin Classics.
'I have been haunted by it ... as I am by those novels that seem to do more than they say, to induce strong emotions that can't quite be accounted for'
Hermione Lee, Sunday Times
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. In taut, ironic prose Fontane depicts a world where sexuality and the will to enjoy life are stifled by vain pretences of civilization, and the obligations of circumstance. Considered to be his greatest novel, this is a humane, unsentimental portrait of a young woman torn between her duties as a wife and mother and the instincts of her heart.
Hugh Rorrison's clear, modern translation is accompanied by an introduction by Helen Chambers, which compares Effi with other literary heroines such as Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina.
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.
If you enjoyed Effi Briest you may like Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, also available in Penguin Classics.
'I have been haunted by it ... as I am by those novels that seem to do more than they say, to induce strong emotions that can't quite be accounted for'
Hermione Lee, Sunday Times
364 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1895
635 people are currently reading
12255 people want to read
About the author
Theodor Fontane
1,028 books221 followersTheodor Fontane, novelist, critic, poet, and travel writer, was one of the most celebrated nineteenth-century German men of letters. He was born into a French Huguenot family in the Prussian town of Neuruppin, where his father owned a small pharmacy. His father’s gambling debts forced the family to move repeatedly, and eventually his temperamentally mismatched parents separated.
Though Fontane showed early interest in history and literature - jotting down stories in his school notebooks - he could not afford to attend university; instead he apprenticed as a pharmacist and eventually settled in Berlin. There he joined the influential literary society Tunnel über der Spree, which included among its members Theodor Storm and Gottfried Keller, and turned to writing. In 1850 Fontane’s first published books, two volumes of ballads, appeared; they would prove to be his most successful books during his lifetime. He spent the next four decades working as a critic, journalist, and war correspondent while producing some fifty works of history, travel narrative, and fiction. His early novels, the first of which was published in 1878, when Fontane was nearly sixty, concerned recent historical events.
It was not until the late 1880s that he turned to his great novels of modern society, remarkable for their psychological insight: Trials and Tribulations (1888), Irretrievable (1891), Frau Jenny Treibel (1892), and Effi Briest (1895). During his last years, Fontane returned to writing poetry, and, while recovering from a severe illness, wrote an autobiographical novel that would prove to be a late commercial success. He is buried in the French section of the Friedhof II cemetery in Berlin.
Though Fontane showed early interest in history and literature - jotting down stories in his school notebooks - he could not afford to attend university; instead he apprenticed as a pharmacist and eventually settled in Berlin. There he joined the influential literary society Tunnel über der Spree, which included among its members Theodor Storm and Gottfried Keller, and turned to writing. In 1850 Fontane’s first published books, two volumes of ballads, appeared; they would prove to be his most successful books during his lifetime. He spent the next four decades working as a critic, journalist, and war correspondent while producing some fifty works of history, travel narrative, and fiction. His early novels, the first of which was published in 1878, when Fontane was nearly sixty, concerned recent historical events.
It was not until the late 1880s that he turned to his great novels of modern society, remarkable for their psychological insight: Trials and Tribulations (1888), Irretrievable (1891), Frau Jenny Treibel (1892), and Effi Briest (1895). During his last years, Fontane returned to writing poetry, and, while recovering from a severe illness, wrote an autobiographical novel that would prove to be a late commercial success. He is buried in the French section of the Friedhof II cemetery in Berlin.
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October 18, 2020
I remember passionately identifying with Effi Briest when I was a young girl.
To me, it was so obvious that you have to do what makes you FEEL right, not what others THINK is right. Telling establishment to go to hell - secretly or not - was a sign of inner independence. Yes! Conventional marriage - bah, humbug! Follow your heart, live your life your own way, make your decisions accordingly.
Fast forward, twenty-five years later.
Do I still identify with Effi? Yes! And no ... Unfortunately, my older self has come to believe that strong feelings are no guarantee for happiness either, especially not the ones you engage in when you are a young teenager experiencing sexual love and desire for the first time.
Do I think Effi should try to live up to the expectations of her old, conventional, socially suitable husband then? No.
What would I tell my younger Effi-self if I had the chance?
Don't marry young. Try different things. Explore life. Choose a partner later when you are able to make a proper decision based both on attraction and common values.
Does that mean Effi Briest couldn't have got it right at all, either way, in her time and place?
Probably. It is hard enough now, despite the incredible progress we have made regarding women's choice and freedom.
Would I like my daughter to identify with Effi?
Partially. As a literary heroine, she is as sweet as they get. As a role model for young girls today, quite unsuitable. There must be more, not less, rebellious joie de vivre in young women of the 21st century!
PS. When will we stop creating new generations of Innstettens? Why do we continue to discuss Effi's right or wrong behaviour, as if his is taken for granted and accepted as a given? She was a caged bird singing and he was a man of principles - the worst kind of old man marrying a young, impressionable girl! May he rot in literary hell where he belongs.
To me, it was so obvious that you have to do what makes you FEEL right, not what others THINK is right. Telling establishment to go to hell - secretly or not - was a sign of inner independence. Yes! Conventional marriage - bah, humbug! Follow your heart, live your life your own way, make your decisions accordingly.
Fast forward, twenty-five years later.
Do I still identify with Effi? Yes! And no ... Unfortunately, my older self has come to believe that strong feelings are no guarantee for happiness either, especially not the ones you engage in when you are a young teenager experiencing sexual love and desire for the first time.
Do I think Effi should try to live up to the expectations of her old, conventional, socially suitable husband then? No.
What would I tell my younger Effi-self if I had the chance?
Don't marry young. Try different things. Explore life. Choose a partner later when you are able to make a proper decision based both on attraction and common values.
Does that mean Effi Briest couldn't have got it right at all, either way, in her time and place?
Probably. It is hard enough now, despite the incredible progress we have made regarding women's choice and freedom.
Would I like my daughter to identify with Effi?
Partially. As a literary heroine, she is as sweet as they get. As a role model for young girls today, quite unsuitable. There must be more, not less, rebellious joie de vivre in young women of the 21st century!
PS. When will we stop creating new generations of Innstettens? Why do we continue to discuss Effi's right or wrong behaviour, as if his is taken for granted and accepted as a given? She was a caged bird singing and he was a man of principles - the worst kind of old man marrying a young, impressionable girl! May he rot in literary hell where he belongs.
January 28, 2023
With "Effi Briest" Fontane delivered a wonderful social study about forced feelings, social conventions and the consequences of an outbreak of all constraints.
Briest is undeniably a classic of German literature and especially of civil realism / social novels in the 19th century.
Briest is undeniably a classic of German literature and especially of civil realism / social novels in the 19th century.
Read
September 21, 2018This is a book in which everybody gets what they wanted, whether they like it or not.
The eponymous heroine gets to marry a man of principals, her husband gets to marry somebody who he thinks (presumably) is just like her mother who he had wanted to marry twenty years earlier and Major Crampas gets to die in combat just as he always wanted.
Social Stricture
Fontane prefers to tell simple stories and Effi Briest is no exception. The plot is very simple and loosely based on a true story, the strength of the story is in the author's craftsmanship. Every detail seems to count and becomes meaningful. A simple tale of the breakdown of a marriage illustrates a small minded and self destructive culture. As in Die Poggenpuhls members of the upper classes are like so many colourful butterflies caught in Fontane's net and pinned to the page.
Their world shifts from the secure to the claustrophobic. Effi marries the man who wanted to marry her mother, her husband in turn is is close to being twenty years older than her. Round the edges of their world lurk threats including scary Catholicism and the dragon of Revolution, luckily Prussian victories are on hand to keep them all safe, but all the same, as Doctor Hannemann tells Effi when her daughter is born, it is a pity that it's a girl on the anniversary of the battle of Königgrätz (Sadowa, or Sadova or even Hradec Králové depending on your linguistic inclination), but you can still have another and the Prussians have many victory anniversaries (Wir haben heute den Tag von Königgrätz; schade dass es ein Mädchen ist. Aber das andere kann ja nachkommen, und die Preußen haben viele Siegestage. (p116)).
There is a road map, but does it lead to anywhere that anyone would really like to go? Effi's marriage at seventeen to a much older man echoes her mother's early marriage to an older man. One life is an iteration of the other. The other cycle in the book is that of the natural year. Effi and her daughter areborn in the summer. While the October marriage and arrival in November in the new home are shrouded in autumnal atmosphere with a promise of a bleak winter to come. The news of Innstetten's promotion comes at the end of winter, so the prospect of a new life in Berlin is offers the hope of a springlike renewal to Effi's life.
A Glance over the Literary Landscape
Since Effi's travelling companion is reading Zola's Nana when the news comes of the breakdown of her marriage it seems natural to compare this failed marriage novel with some of the others that if not Fontane then his reading audience would be familiar with to bring out some of the distinctive features of Fontane's approach. The social code is far stricter in Fontane's book (this is above all a Prussian story!) than in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina while the social milieu and the author's attitude towards the social milieu distinguishes Madame Bovary from Effi.
Madame Bovary, as far as I recall aspired to a romantic vision of decadent upper class life, while Effi is stuck in the reality of an upper class existence that is intolerant and restrictive, the decadence of the Eulenburg Affair is fasr from her daily experience. Madame Bovary's reading has primed her for a life of voluptuous dissipation, while Effi (who never gets to have the full or adult version of her name, instead is forever a Katie and never a Catherine) is characterised by her lack of reading and poor education, her consistent reference point is what her old Pastor said.
While in both Tolstoy and Fontane the theme of adultery ends in the woman's death, for Tolstoy this is the result of the woman's choice. She has abandoned her role in the family, and with the aid of further emphatically non-Russian Western decadence in the form of drugs and steam trains she meets her death. Effi is, by contrast, the passive element in the story. Things happen to her and are imposed on her. Her husband's actions, governed by a principled moral code, lead to her being ostracised and the extent of her ostracism is determined by the degree to which society shares or conforms to her husband Innstetten's values. However Effi has the final word. She thought at the age of seventeen that those principles of his were manly, but comes to realise that that are simply small minded (and perhaps those two categories aren't mutually exclusive). Despite this she is able to transcend her society and forgive him, whether that is helpful or meaningful beyond establishing something about her character is another question, in a sense, as a social novel, her forgiving him is a shocking act. In this type of novel, from this type of society, we are used to expecting that the "fallen" woman is the one in need of forgiveness and isn't the one who provides the forgiveness. Little Effi is the still centre of the book and one leaves with the feeling that it is Innstetten who needed her more than Effi needed him.
Here Effi Briest seems to me to be very close to Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Although socially the two books are in completely different worlds the sense of a dominant morally that is pre-Christian and simply vindictive is shared through the imagery of human sacrifice. Stonehenge in Hardy is the counterpoint of the sacrifice stones that Effi sees in North Germany. She assumes that they are Wendish in origin (ie Slav and not German), but, and Effi's poor education is a constant theme in the story, she is corrected towards the close of the novel Ach, gnäd'ge Frau verzeihen. Aber das waren ja keine Wenden. Das mit den Opfersteinen und mit dem Herthasee das war ja schon wieder viel, viel früher, ganz vor Christum natum; reine Germanen, von denen wir alle abstammen... (p280). The sacrifice stones are 'purely German' and the characters in the novel are the descendants of those Germans who at various foolish points in German history have been lauded as good role models - Fontane is the antidote to that kind of thinking and so is the Grand Old Man of Prussian letters.
While Nana, and Madame Bovary weigh in with leading women who are intrinsically destructive and disruptive to the social order, in Fontane it is the social order itself that is destructive with the potential to crush the joy out of life, and the life out of the individual.
The novelist as Craftsman
One can see the influence of this novel on Thomas Mann's style in Buddenbrooks. This struck me particularly in the Twenty-eighth chapter which deals with the duel between Innstetten and Crampas. Rather like some of the chapters in Buddenbrooks this could have been a free standing short story. The references to earlier events are self explanatory. Innstetten's return to Kessin in bright sunshine contrasting to his earlier arrival with Effi after their honeymoon on a gloomy November day. The efficiency of the description of the actual combat, terse, in stark contrast to the longer description of Crampas' death. The irony of his last words. The lack of emotion in the scene contrasted with the letter that closes the chapter in which Innstetten's Second describes visiting Crampas' widow and explaining to her that she is now, in fact, a widow. The dryness of the stripped down style itself a blow to any reader expecting a great denouement. This is a duel that provides no satisfaction, save to a man such as Innstetten. Every detail labours to tell part of the story, nothing is superfluous.
Towards the next reading...
Is Effi a modern version of the Virgin Mary as Dostoevsky's Prince Myshkin is meant to be a nineteeth-century Jesus? Does the positive characterisation of the catholic Roswitha and the detail of Effi's characterisation at home lead in that direction? Or should this be read in the light of the educational value of literature, had Effi read her Goethe, Heine, or Samuel Richardson might she have been better placed to survive adult life?
The eponymous heroine gets to marry a man of principals, her husband gets to marry somebody who he thinks (presumably) is just like her mother who he had wanted to marry twenty years earlier and Major Crampas gets to die in combat just as he always wanted.
Social Stricture
Fontane prefers to tell simple stories and Effi Briest is no exception. The plot is very simple and loosely based on a true story, the strength of the story is in the author's craftsmanship. Every detail seems to count and becomes meaningful. A simple tale of the breakdown of a marriage illustrates a small minded and self destructive culture. As in Die Poggenpuhls members of the upper classes are like so many colourful butterflies caught in Fontane's net and pinned to the page.
Their world shifts from the secure to the claustrophobic. Effi marries the man who wanted to marry her mother, her husband in turn is is close to being twenty years older than her. Round the edges of their world lurk threats including scary Catholicism and the dragon of Revolution, luckily Prussian victories are on hand to keep them all safe, but all the same, as Doctor Hannemann tells Effi when her daughter is born, it is a pity that it's a girl on the anniversary of the battle of Königgrätz (Sadowa, or Sadova or even Hradec Králové depending on your linguistic inclination), but you can still have another and the Prussians have many victory anniversaries (Wir haben heute den Tag von Königgrätz; schade dass es ein Mädchen ist. Aber das andere kann ja nachkommen, und die Preußen haben viele Siegestage. (p116)).
There is a road map, but does it lead to anywhere that anyone would really like to go? Effi's marriage at seventeen to a much older man echoes her mother's early marriage to an older man. One life is an iteration of the other. The other cycle in the book is that of the natural year. Effi and her daughter areborn in the summer. While the October marriage and arrival in November in the new home are shrouded in autumnal atmosphere with a promise of a bleak winter to come. The news of Innstetten's promotion comes at the end of winter, so the prospect of a new life in Berlin is offers the hope of a springlike renewal to Effi's life.
A Glance over the Literary Landscape
Since Effi's travelling companion is reading Zola's Nana when the news comes of the breakdown of her marriage it seems natural to compare this failed marriage novel with some of the others that if not Fontane then his reading audience would be familiar with to bring out some of the distinctive features of Fontane's approach. The social code is far stricter in Fontane's book (this is above all a Prussian story!) than in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina while the social milieu and the author's attitude towards the social milieu distinguishes Madame Bovary from Effi.
Madame Bovary, as far as I recall aspired to a romantic vision of decadent upper class life, while Effi is stuck in the reality of an upper class existence that is intolerant and restrictive, the decadence of the Eulenburg Affair is fasr from her daily experience. Madame Bovary's reading has primed her for a life of voluptuous dissipation, while Effi (who never gets to have the full or adult version of her name, instead is forever a Katie and never a Catherine) is characterised by her lack of reading and poor education, her consistent reference point is what her old Pastor said.
While in both Tolstoy and Fontane the theme of adultery ends in the woman's death, for Tolstoy this is the result of the woman's choice. She has abandoned her role in the family, and with the aid of further emphatically non-Russian Western decadence in the form of drugs and steam trains she meets her death. Effi is, by contrast, the passive element in the story. Things happen to her and are imposed on her. Her husband's actions, governed by a principled moral code, lead to her being ostracised and the extent of her ostracism is determined by the degree to which society shares or conforms to her husband Innstetten's values. However Effi has the final word. She thought at the age of seventeen that those principles of his were manly, but comes to realise that that are simply small minded (and perhaps those two categories aren't mutually exclusive). Despite this she is able to transcend her society and forgive him, whether that is helpful or meaningful beyond establishing something about her character is another question, in a sense, as a social novel, her forgiving him is a shocking act. In this type of novel, from this type of society, we are used to expecting that the "fallen" woman is the one in need of forgiveness and isn't the one who provides the forgiveness. Little Effi is the still centre of the book and one leaves with the feeling that it is Innstetten who needed her more than Effi needed him.
Here Effi Briest seems to me to be very close to Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Although socially the two books are in completely different worlds the sense of a dominant morally that is pre-Christian and simply vindictive is shared through the imagery of human sacrifice. Stonehenge in Hardy is the counterpoint of the sacrifice stones that Effi sees in North Germany. She assumes that they are Wendish in origin (ie Slav and not German), but, and Effi's poor education is a constant theme in the story, she is corrected towards the close of the novel Ach, gnäd'ge Frau verzeihen. Aber das waren ja keine Wenden. Das mit den Opfersteinen und mit dem Herthasee das war ja schon wieder viel, viel früher, ganz vor Christum natum; reine Germanen, von denen wir alle abstammen... (p280). The sacrifice stones are 'purely German' and the characters in the novel are the descendants of those Germans who at various foolish points in German history have been lauded as good role models - Fontane is the antidote to that kind of thinking and so is the Grand Old Man of Prussian letters.
While Nana, and Madame Bovary weigh in with leading women who are intrinsically destructive and disruptive to the social order, in Fontane it is the social order itself that is destructive with the potential to crush the joy out of life, and the life out of the individual.
The novelist as Craftsman
One can see the influence of this novel on Thomas Mann's style in Buddenbrooks. This struck me particularly in the Twenty-eighth chapter which deals with the duel between Innstetten and Crampas. Rather like some of the chapters in Buddenbrooks this could have been a free standing short story. The references to earlier events are self explanatory. Innstetten's return to Kessin in bright sunshine contrasting to his earlier arrival with Effi after their honeymoon on a gloomy November day. The efficiency of the description of the actual combat, terse, in stark contrast to the longer description of Crampas' death. The irony of his last words. The lack of emotion in the scene contrasted with the letter that closes the chapter in which Innstetten's Second describes visiting Crampas' widow and explaining to her that she is now, in fact, a widow. The dryness of the stripped down style itself a blow to any reader expecting a great denouement. This is a duel that provides no satisfaction, save to a man such as Innstetten. Every detail labours to tell part of the story, nothing is superfluous.
Towards the next reading...
Is Effi a modern version of the Virgin Mary as Dostoevsky's Prince Myshkin is meant to be a nineteeth-century Jesus? Does the positive characterisation of the catholic Roswitha and the detail of Effi's characterisation at home lead in that direction? Or should this be read in the light of the educational value of literature, had Effi read her Goethe, Heine, or Samuel Richardson might she have been better placed to survive adult life?
July 19, 2019
Dies war mein erstes Buch von Fontane. Tatsächlich ging diese klassische Schullektüre völlig an mir vorbei, weil ich das Buch auch in eine falsche Schublade gesteckt hatte. Ich dachte, dass ich eine stark schwarz-weiß beschriebene Dreiecksbeziehung geboten bekomme, in dem der gehörnte Ehemann als nicht-liebenswert beschrieben wird und das junge Glück zwischen stattlichem Freier und junger Ehefrau, das beneidenswert leidenschaftlich geführt wird, keine Chance auf eine gemeinsame Zukunft hat. Diese Erwartungen wurden absolut nicht erfüllt, und das war gut so.
Effi Briest ist nicht mit anderen Ehefrauen-Figuren der Weltliteratur vergleichbar, die sich aus dem erkaltetem Eheleben in ein Abenteuer stürzen. Sie ist nicht so gefestigt und stark wie eine Anna Karenina oder so mit Hass erfüllt wie eine Madame Bovary. Effi ist eigentlich noch ein Kind im Geiste als sie 17jährig in die Standesehe mit dem Baron von Instetten von den Eltern gedrängt wird. Ihr Ehemann, der vom Alter her ihr Vater sein könnte, ist zwar gefühlskalt und pflichtbewusst, doch ist er keineswegs ein so durchaus böser Mensch, mit dem man nicht zusammenleben könnte. Sie ziehen in ein kleines Nest an der Ostsee, Effi ist langweilig, sie sehr ängstlich, einsam und ungeliebt. Da ist so ein netter Major, der romantische Gedichte von Heine rezitiert ein willkommene Ablenkung. Oder sogar mehr? Tatsächlich ist die Erotik zwischen den Beiden so dosiert, dass ich den Handkuss oder die gemeinsame Kutschfahrt gar nicht als verwerflicher Seitensprung erkannte und mich bis fast zum Ende des Buchs fragte, wann denn die Liebesgeschichte beginnt.
Doch Fontane geht es gar nicht darum, eine romantische Schmonzette der Leserschaft in der Jahrhundertwende zu präsentieren. Effi Briest ist für mich ein sehr geistreicher und sprachlich wunderbarer Roman, der die Gesellschaftskritik in der Wilhelminischen Zeit zum Thema hat. Effi ist zwar etwas naiv, aber sie ist durchaus liebenswert in ihrem ungestümen Tatendrang. "Nicht so wild, Effi, nicht so leidenschaftlich", wird sie von der Mutter gebremst. Effi will sich ihre Leidenschaft nicht nehmen lassen, doch letztlich bricht die Gesellschaft die Unkonventionelle und verbannt sie aus ihren Reihen, als ihr Fehltritt mit dem Major Crampas bekannt wird. Selbst ihre Eltern wollen sich die Schande in Person der leibhaftigen Tochter zunächst nicht mehr ins Haus holen. Und Effis kleine Tochter wird zur Marionette des Vaters. Effi zerbricht nicht, sie geht ein, wie eine vertrocknete Blume.
Das Besondere an dem Roman sind die vielen Symboliken, Verweise und Motive, die ich bestimmt nicht in ihrer Gänze alle erfassen konnte. So wird Effis Angst durch einen imaginären Chinesen und anderen Spuk verkörpert. Das Buch ist daher nicht nur poetisch, sondern auch komplex auf den verschiedenen Erzählebenen und -perspektiven. Neben dem auktorialen Erzähler, tauchen auch immer wieder persönliche Stimmen der Figuren in Form von Briefen und Gedanken auf. Auch wenn die Figur der Effi aufgrund ihrer Naivität und dem zur Schau getragenen Optimismus recht nervig sein kann, so schafft es Fontane durch seinen Erzählstil hervorragend, ihre Innenansichten und Gefühle zu beschreiben. Ich kann nun verstehen, dass Fontane als einer der größten Romanciers zwischen Goethe und Mann bezeichnet wird und freue mich im Fontane-Jahr 2019 auf weitere Bücher von ihm.
Effi Briest ist nicht mit anderen Ehefrauen-Figuren der Weltliteratur vergleichbar, die sich aus dem erkaltetem Eheleben in ein Abenteuer stürzen. Sie ist nicht so gefestigt und stark wie eine Anna Karenina oder so mit Hass erfüllt wie eine Madame Bovary. Effi ist eigentlich noch ein Kind im Geiste als sie 17jährig in die Standesehe mit dem Baron von Instetten von den Eltern gedrängt wird. Ihr Ehemann, der vom Alter her ihr Vater sein könnte, ist zwar gefühlskalt und pflichtbewusst, doch ist er keineswegs ein so durchaus böser Mensch, mit dem man nicht zusammenleben könnte. Sie ziehen in ein kleines Nest an der Ostsee, Effi ist langweilig, sie sehr ängstlich, einsam und ungeliebt. Da ist so ein netter Major, der romantische Gedichte von Heine rezitiert ein willkommene Ablenkung. Oder sogar mehr? Tatsächlich ist die Erotik zwischen den Beiden so dosiert, dass ich den Handkuss oder die gemeinsame Kutschfahrt gar nicht als verwerflicher Seitensprung erkannte und mich bis fast zum Ende des Buchs fragte, wann denn die Liebesgeschichte beginnt.
Doch Fontane geht es gar nicht darum, eine romantische Schmonzette der Leserschaft in der Jahrhundertwende zu präsentieren. Effi Briest ist für mich ein sehr geistreicher und sprachlich wunderbarer Roman, der die Gesellschaftskritik in der Wilhelminischen Zeit zum Thema hat. Effi ist zwar etwas naiv, aber sie ist durchaus liebenswert in ihrem ungestümen Tatendrang. "Nicht so wild, Effi, nicht so leidenschaftlich", wird sie von der Mutter gebremst. Effi will sich ihre Leidenschaft nicht nehmen lassen, doch letztlich bricht die Gesellschaft die Unkonventionelle und verbannt sie aus ihren Reihen, als ihr Fehltritt mit dem Major Crampas bekannt wird. Selbst ihre Eltern wollen sich die Schande in Person der leibhaftigen Tochter zunächst nicht mehr ins Haus holen. Und Effis kleine Tochter wird zur Marionette des Vaters. Effi zerbricht nicht, sie geht ein, wie eine vertrocknete Blume.
Das Besondere an dem Roman sind die vielen Symboliken, Verweise und Motive, die ich bestimmt nicht in ihrer Gänze alle erfassen konnte. So wird Effis Angst durch einen imaginären Chinesen und anderen Spuk verkörpert. Das Buch ist daher nicht nur poetisch, sondern auch komplex auf den verschiedenen Erzählebenen und -perspektiven. Neben dem auktorialen Erzähler, tauchen auch immer wieder persönliche Stimmen der Figuren in Form von Briefen und Gedanken auf. Auch wenn die Figur der Effi aufgrund ihrer Naivität und dem zur Schau getragenen Optimismus recht nervig sein kann, so schafft es Fontane durch seinen Erzählstil hervorragend, ihre Innenansichten und Gefühle zu beschreiben. Ich kann nun verstehen, dass Fontane als einer der größten Romanciers zwischen Goethe und Mann bezeichnet wird und freue mich im Fontane-Jahr 2019 auf weitere Bücher von ihm.
November 23, 2017
Effi Briest (1895) is an impressive work of Prussian realism and it's definitely classed as a 'tragic novel', one may argue one of the best to come out of the 19th century. The story is simple enough, hardly unique, and been done with similarities many times over since. Geert von Innstetten, an ambitious nobleman and civil servant on the brink of middle age, makes an uncontroversial marriage to Effi von Briest, the 17-year-old daughter of a former flame. Innstetten takes her back to the town in Pomerania from which he runs the local administration. A daughter, Annie, is born, but Innstetten is keen to get on, and leaves his young wife on her own where she falls prey to a cunning womaniser, Major von Crampas. Effi was never really fond of Crampas, and the events that follow her early marriage start to take there toll. She slowly turns from a spritely young girl to someone with heavy melancholy on their shoulders. Once Innstetten gets wind of an affair, he takes matters into his own hands, with a deadly outcome. Whilst a solitude Effi would decline in health with the added turmoil of bouts of despair.
Theodor Fontane based the story on a case he had read about in the newspapers, and it's quite easy to see whilst reading that it could have happened, you feel everything is so real. Fontane was the supreme apologist for Prussian values and his heroes - and villains - are often drawn from the ranks of its modest but warlike squirearchy. Innstetten is another Prussian type: the altruistic bureaucrat. As an old lady from Hamburg once told him: "We hated the Prussians, but such a thing as a corrupt official would have been unthinkable then.", It is not just the nobility that Fontane portrays. Kessin is Swinemünde, a port city in Poland, where Fontane himself grew up, and the novelist presents an affectionate tableau of provincial life in a Prussian seaside town. And an
old apothecary, is also a portrait of Fontane's own father.
Effi is at the heart of the novel, and it's hearts she is likely to break, I felt for her plight, deeply.
She was simply too young to handle the situations presented before her. Later on Effi succeeds in seeing her daughter (this after she ends up living alone) and is heartbroken to learn Annie has become a father's girl. For the first and last time Effi looks at those around her as a curse, but in the end she becomes part of the problem herself. For Innstetten and Effi, a sympathetic nature is shown for both, and their destinies are set with seemingly no way out. Fontane presents the story with superiority, and captures life of this period so well.
Here is the problem though, and it isn't with the novel itself but with the version I happened to read. For some strange reason 90% of it's content was English language, but words like 'the' 'and' 'then' 'there' 'those' and 'this' were left in German?. Also Effi had her name misspelled often as Lffi. This didn't completely ruin the novel, but it didn't help either, spoiling, in part what was a fine piece of writing.
Theodor Fontane based the story on a case he had read about in the newspapers, and it's quite easy to see whilst reading that it could have happened, you feel everything is so real. Fontane was the supreme apologist for Prussian values and his heroes - and villains - are often drawn from the ranks of its modest but warlike squirearchy. Innstetten is another Prussian type: the altruistic bureaucrat. As an old lady from Hamburg once told him: "We hated the Prussians, but such a thing as a corrupt official would have been unthinkable then.", It is not just the nobility that Fontane portrays. Kessin is Swinemünde, a port city in Poland, where Fontane himself grew up, and the novelist presents an affectionate tableau of provincial life in a Prussian seaside town. And an
old apothecary, is also a portrait of Fontane's own father.
Effi is at the heart of the novel, and it's hearts she is likely to break, I felt for her plight, deeply.
She was simply too young to handle the situations presented before her. Later on Effi succeeds in seeing her daughter (this after she ends up living alone) and is heartbroken to learn Annie has become a father's girl. For the first and last time Effi looks at those around her as a curse, but in the end she becomes part of the problem herself. For Innstetten and Effi, a sympathetic nature is shown for both, and their destinies are set with seemingly no way out. Fontane presents the story with superiority, and captures life of this period so well.
Here is the problem though, and it isn't with the novel itself but with the version I happened to read. For some strange reason 90% of it's content was English language, but words like 'the' 'and' 'then' 'there' 'those' and 'this' were left in German?. Also Effi had her name misspelled often as Lffi. This didn't completely ruin the novel, but it didn't help either, spoiling, in part what was a fine piece of writing.
March 30, 2017
Subtlety is an art form rarely seen in our era. We live in a time where bombastic, loud, and graphic compete for our senses. But does one really need that much noise and glamor in order to captivate? Are we really that inattentive? Theodore Fontane’s Effi Briest is the rare novel that exercises graceful restraint yet echoes more than the proverbial cannon. It tells the story of a young woman who yields at everything thrown her way - from her marriage to a much older man, life in a backwater town, and eventually to a lover. Then when the curtain drops she accepts her dreadful fate without complaint, her life they very epitome of resignation. What’s curious about this novel though is that the adulterous act is never so much as depicted. It goes on for a while in the background with little hints here and there but the reader can be inclined to attribute it to playful imagination. It is treated like a ghost to be wary of, always alluded to but never explicitly confirmed. Not until the last few pages is the suspicion set and the heavy feeling substantiated. It creeps slowly, silently, and hovers like smog disguised as a mist mingling the spirits of trust and guilt.
“There are so many lives that aren’t real lives, so many marriages that aren’t real marriages.”
Effi’s marriage to her husband, Innstentten, who was nearly the age of her father, can be considered the seed of her misfortune. Putting things into perspective from the generational, psychological, and even social standpoints there was such a wide chasm between them and this was further amplified by the great difference in their educational experience. It was such a doomed affair from the start that no matter how accommodating one is to the other there is too great a difference in their personalities that miscommunication is often the result. Their relationship can be seen as symbolizing the conflict between nature and culture. She was more a person of her whims, following her vain thoughts, like a stream flowing through the recesses and cracks she finds, going whenever the current takes her and so she drifted into an affair, while as a civil servant and minister he cared more about principles and social conventions and so once he discovered the affair even long after it ended he could not stop himself from going through his quest for reparation even if he wanted to keep the whole thing secret and knew that he longed to forgive his wife because he loved her still. Using realism as his tool Fontane shows the whole absurdity of the matter. He examines the proclivities of nature and how culture can stunt its development. It also looks at the role of age in the whole affair - the youth, like Effi, are always more inclined to follow their nature and fancies, but as one ages and reaches a certain point in life, much like Innstentten, you become grounded in culture and norms thus your obligations take priority over your inclinations.
Culture, especially through education, does much good if pursued with an appropriately human and flexible emphasis. It should aim to harness our nature and help it reach the utmost potential to express itself and manifest fully a distilled version better equipped to deal with the pressures of life. However it fails in its function if it becomes an instrument of repression which eliminate the freedom of thought and the scope of imagination, instead of facilitating them, killing the buds that bloom into one’s natural voice and words. On the other side, when nature is given reigns unchecked, without proper guidance, something Culture can provide, then it can only lead to irresponsible ruin. In Effi’s case, sadly, the contrasting of these two facets was her bane, when its harmony would have been her salvation.
“Yes, I’m plagued by fear, and shame too at my own duplicity. But not shame at my guilt, I don’t feel that, or not properly, or not enough, and that’s what’s crushing me, the fact that I don’t feel it.”
Immediately after finishing this novel I questioned myself what about it was the most striking fragment and I was at a loss. The whole thing seemed quite underwhelming buried in all its subtleness yet at the same time I realized that it wasn’t so much as a lack of reaction on my part but rather a renunciation of effect on its, giving off a controlled muteness which it keenly achieves, Effi Briest does not seek to protest, to stir the emotion, or impart a profound lesson. It aims for one thing – realism – true, unaffected, and often silent. It asks us to think our own thoughts and see it in a light that shines brightest for us. Offering warmth of human understanding and a non-judgmental attitude to human weakness, this great novel offers an inner quiet that can only be interpreted as the highest form of respect accorded to its readers, to our nature.
“Stand in the breach and hold the line till you fall, that’s the best thing. And before you go, get as much as possible out of the smallest things of life, the smallest of all.”
“There are so many lives that aren’t real lives, so many marriages that aren’t real marriages.”
Effi’s marriage to her husband, Innstentten, who was nearly the age of her father, can be considered the seed of her misfortune. Putting things into perspective from the generational, psychological, and even social standpoints there was such a wide chasm between them and this was further amplified by the great difference in their educational experience. It was such a doomed affair from the start that no matter how accommodating one is to the other there is too great a difference in their personalities that miscommunication is often the result. Their relationship can be seen as symbolizing the conflict between nature and culture. She was more a person of her whims, following her vain thoughts, like a stream flowing through the recesses and cracks she finds, going whenever the current takes her and so she drifted into an affair, while as a civil servant and minister he cared more about principles and social conventions and so once he discovered the affair even long after it ended he could not stop himself from going through his quest for reparation even if he wanted to keep the whole thing secret and knew that he longed to forgive his wife because he loved her still. Using realism as his tool Fontane shows the whole absurdity of the matter. He examines the proclivities of nature and how culture can stunt its development. It also looks at the role of age in the whole affair - the youth, like Effi, are always more inclined to follow their nature and fancies, but as one ages and reaches a certain point in life, much like Innstentten, you become grounded in culture and norms thus your obligations take priority over your inclinations.
Culture, especially through education, does much good if pursued with an appropriately human and flexible emphasis. It should aim to harness our nature and help it reach the utmost potential to express itself and manifest fully a distilled version better equipped to deal with the pressures of life. However it fails in its function if it becomes an instrument of repression which eliminate the freedom of thought and the scope of imagination, instead of facilitating them, killing the buds that bloom into one’s natural voice and words. On the other side, when nature is given reigns unchecked, without proper guidance, something Culture can provide, then it can only lead to irresponsible ruin. In Effi’s case, sadly, the contrasting of these two facets was her bane, when its harmony would have been her salvation.
“Yes, I’m plagued by fear, and shame too at my own duplicity. But not shame at my guilt, I don’t feel that, or not properly, or not enough, and that’s what’s crushing me, the fact that I don’t feel it.”
Immediately after finishing this novel I questioned myself what about it was the most striking fragment and I was at a loss. The whole thing seemed quite underwhelming buried in all its subtleness yet at the same time I realized that it wasn’t so much as a lack of reaction on my part but rather a renunciation of effect on its, giving off a controlled muteness which it keenly achieves, Effi Briest does not seek to protest, to stir the emotion, or impart a profound lesson. It aims for one thing – realism – true, unaffected, and often silent. It asks us to think our own thoughts and see it in a light that shines brightest for us. Offering warmth of human understanding and a non-judgmental attitude to human weakness, this great novel offers an inner quiet that can only be interpreted as the highest form of respect accorded to its readers, to our nature.
“Stand in the breach and hold the line till you fall, that’s the best thing. And before you go, get as much as possible out of the smallest things of life, the smallest of all.”
March 10, 2023
This is one of the most important works of German poetic realism: Fontane employs his trademark quiet and elegic tone and juxtaposes it with the tragic story of 17-year-old Effi who is forced to marry a much older man during the Wilhelmine Period (the story was first serialized in a magazine and then published in book form in 1896). As the book is conceptualized as a "bürgerlicher Gesellschaftsroman", so a novel that talks about the mores and manners of the bourgeoisie, it is the lack of expressive sentiment and dramatic overflow that makes this tale so uncomfortable to read: Fontane is pointing out that what he describes -i.e., that women have to oblige and obey, no matter the cost - is the norm, and while the way the story unfolds underlines that these conventions result in unhappiness and pain, there is no mistaking that these are common phenomena that are accordingly discussed in an even, rather unaffected tone.
Effi has grown up in a wealthy household, she is an otherworldly young girl who doesn't know much about life. While she is curious and longing for adventure (in a core scene, Fontane shows her on a swing, reachings dangerous heights), she has no outlet for her energy, as she is not expected to have interests or ambitions: Effi is expected to be an obedient wife and to raise children. Along comes 38-year old baron von Innstetten, her parents marry her off, and as Effi is not a rebel, she tries to conform and fight her own character, but of course, tragedy unfolds.
The fact that Effi is not a modern-day feminist hero is a challenge for contemporary readers: Effi is looking for a place for herself in the society she knows, she has no role models that could convey alternative lifestyle choices, and a lot of what happens to her goes over her head because she is lacking experience and knowledge (which is not her fault - her curiosity and passion have always been labelled as negative). So while Effi is a product of her time and might also have some personal flaws, what happens to her is still a shocking illustration of late 19th century morals. Apart from that, Fontane's poetic style in the book had a huge impact on other writers, namely Thomas Mann, whose Buddenbrooks was partly inspired by "Effi Briest" (there is also a minor character in the book who is called "Buddenbrook").
A great book that requires the reader to dive into a very foreign mindset (also for modern Germans) and shines with its quiet poetic impact.
Effi has grown up in a wealthy household, she is an otherworldly young girl who doesn't know much about life. While she is curious and longing for adventure (in a core scene, Fontane shows her on a swing, reachings dangerous heights), she has no outlet for her energy, as she is not expected to have interests or ambitions: Effi is expected to be an obedient wife and to raise children. Along comes 38-year old baron von Innstetten, her parents marry her off, and as Effi is not a rebel, she tries to conform and fight her own character, but of course, tragedy unfolds.
The fact that Effi is not a modern-day feminist hero is a challenge for contemporary readers: Effi is looking for a place for herself in the society she knows, she has no role models that could convey alternative lifestyle choices, and a lot of what happens to her goes over her head because she is lacking experience and knowledge (which is not her fault - her curiosity and passion have always been labelled as negative). So while Effi is a product of her time and might also have some personal flaws, what happens to her is still a shocking illustration of late 19th century morals. Apart from that, Fontane's poetic style in the book had a huge impact on other writers, namely Thomas Mann, whose Buddenbrooks was partly inspired by "Effi Briest" (there is also a minor character in the book who is called "Buddenbrook").
A great book that requires the reader to dive into a very foreign mindset (also for modern Germans) and shines with its quiet poetic impact.
April 10, 2022
My take on Effi: I don't think I like it very much - I kind of hate it- but I found it continually interesting due to what I consider its rule breaking, which is mostly in questions of pacing. The big scenes are off screen, the small moments of movement are expanded out, and then the rush begins. Fontane felt like a writer rushing through the remainder of his outline, to me, at the end, like a college undergrad hitting a workshop deadline. I really like Armand V, the Dag Solstad novel told in end notes to a novel that doesn't actually exist, a total shadow text, essentially. I feel this way here too. I felt a similar way about The Idiot, actually, the action was so "off-screen" that it all ended up feeling just a bit transgressive, despite itself. Depressing too.
So strange how little most of it ends up mattering, in a way, no? The ghost, the accumulation of the first half, the slow build of the region - all of it abandoned.
There was one other thing I liked though. I liked that no one really wanted the plot to happen, and they were compelled by what I might go so far as to call a system of treaties. Marriage treaty, affair treaty, reaction to affair treaty. These are pretty well-realized characters who behave as society would have them do. It reminded me of World War 1, a bit, or a clockwork play. Innenstein is on the edge of some sort of meta-awareness of the plot of his own novel. I like system books a lot when they can wink at themselves a bit. I can't say that this one does, but it's a bit closer than one might think. I liked the literary references throughout too.
So strange how little most of it ends up mattering, in a way, no? The ghost, the accumulation of the first half, the slow build of the region - all of it abandoned.
There was one other thing I liked though. I liked that no one really wanted the plot to happen, and they were compelled by what I might go so far as to call a system of treaties. Marriage treaty, affair treaty, reaction to affair treaty. These are pretty well-realized characters who behave as society would have them do. It reminded me of World War 1, a bit, or a clockwork play. Innenstein is on the edge of some sort of meta-awareness of the plot of his own novel. I like system books a lot when they can wink at themselves a bit. I can't say that this one does, but it's a bit closer than one might think. I liked the literary references throughout too.
December 11, 2020
4.5 stars
Effi Briest is considered Fontane’s best work. It is a striking indictment of 19th-century Prussian society. It is a tale in the tradition of 19th century adulteresses – a German Madame Bovary or Anna Karenina, though Effi’s adultery is far more subtle than that of her French and Russian counterparts. In fact, if you blink while reading about the adultery you can miss it altogether.
The novel opens with the the free-spirited and vivacious Effi, age 17, playing on swings with her friends. Effi is most in her element when flying through the air and reveling in her freedom while, at the same time, aware of the danger inherent in such a pursuit. This seemingly innocent play foreshadows the conflicts between Effi’s independent spirit and the danger inherent in the society in which she lives.
Young Effi gets off the swing to meet her future husband, a much older man, Baron Instetten. Effi marries not for love but for luxury and excitement because no other path than marriage and motherhood is open for her in 19th Century Prussian society.
Effi on marriage:
“If it can't be love and affection, for love, as Papa says, is just stuff and nonsense (which I don't actually believe), well then I'm for wealth and a grand house, a very grand house . . .”
Effi on the man her mother chose for her:
”Anybody is the right one. Provided he is an aristocrat and has a position and good looks, naturally.” She gives the socially acceptable answer yet we know she would prefer to marry for love.
Effi’s marriage sets the stage for the inevitable tragic story for both Effi and her husband, each having inherited the strict code of honor and duty which prevailed in 19th Century Prussia. The newly married couple move to Kessin, a Prussian backwater, on the Baltic coast in Pomerania, where he has a position as a district administrator. Instettenn is often absent from home. Suffering from boredom and emotional neglect, Effi allows herself to conduct an affair with Major von Crampas, an ex-army officer who is also unhappy in a bad marriage. Her involvement with him is merely a diversion for her. The affair serves to counteract the social tedium and dearth of entertainment in Effi’s dull and all too provincial life.
6 years later Instettin is elevated to a ministerial position in Berlin and the family (Effi has given birth to a child by now) moves to the capital. Life becomes more eventful and fulfilling for Effi.. Through an unfortunate accident, however, Innstetten finds love letters from Crampas to Effie. Social duty and the prevailing strict code of honor impels him to invite Crampas to duel, against his real instinct and his wish to maintain the status quo of his marriage. The duel results in Crampas’s death. Henceforth Effi, in line with the legally sanctioned procedures in such matters in an age in which women were not granted equal rights, is cast out of her previous life. She is punished by being forbidden access to her daughter and ostracized by polite society. She is deemed to have forfeited any chance of happiness and is even denied a return to her much loved parental home.
Time passes for Effi in undiminished misery; ailments overwhelm her and even the much longed-for, and eventually permitted visit by her little daughter, mortifies her mother by responding like a trained automaton, showing no signs of affection. This meeting has the effect of making Effi’s despair even deeper.
"He was right she told herself, a thousand times right but yet in the last resort, he was wrong."
Effi knows that the socially acceptable response to his harsh criticisms and punishments is to defer and trust. "The man is always right." Effi, however, trusts her intuition just enough to insist that her husband is wrong for casting her out and poisoning their daughter's mind against her own mother. In this denial of social expectation, Effi gains great strength and quiet resolution though she continues to ail.
Effi’s concerned physician, Dr Rummschüttel, succeeds in persuading her hitherto unforgiving parents to take her back to the home that was her only true place of happiness. She now accepts her impending death. She realizes that Innstetten is a small-minded, career-driven and emotionally impoverished individual, who is also clearly a product of his upbringing and environment. Thus she feels able to forgive him. In one of the last exchanges with her mother, she acknowledges generously that he acted in the only way possible for one who ‘had much that is good in his nature and was as noble as someone can be who is without real love.’
This was the saddest and most moving part of the story for me; Effi, on her deathbed, forgiving the man who could not forgive her. Also, it was very sad to watch such a vitally alive young woman become more and more ill as the weight of societal oppression squashed her spirit and she lost all that she loved in life. She was not totally squashed, though; she remained the lovable, spirited and generous human being she was at the beginning of the novel. . Watching her die was heartbreaking. While reading I knew how the story ended but still hoped for a different outcome for Effi.
“This is as it was meant to be."
This is Effi's parents' epithet after her death. that her loving parents dismiss Effi's tragic life as a function of fate and also as the consequence of disobeying society's dictates. Such loving parents hardly seemed to mourn the death of their only child.
In conversations with his closest friend, Innstetten acknowledges that he has been fundamentally changed; he voices regret and finds himself unable to take pleasure in further professional advancement. He is tormented by the feeling that all of his career ambition is actually meaningless, and that the duel, which set in motion all the repercussions for Effi, was a mistake too.
This story was based on the life of a woman about whom Fontane read in the newspaper. Armand Léon von Ardenne had killed Emil Hartwich, a local magistrate who had been sleeping with the former's wife, Elisabeth von Plotho. His divorce on 15 March 1887 gave him full custody of his children, and his ex-wife set about caring for the deprived and disabled. Her name was temporarily removed from the family chronicles. In 1904, her daughter Margot was the first to try to find her; her son Egmont saw her in 1909. She died in 1952, age 98, and was interred in a Berlin grave of honor.
Fontane clearly changed the story in order to make a point about the society in which he lived.
Effi Briest is considered Fontane’s best work. It is a striking indictment of 19th-century Prussian society. It is a tale in the tradition of 19th century adulteresses – a German Madame Bovary or Anna Karenina, though Effi’s adultery is far more subtle than that of her French and Russian counterparts. In fact, if you blink while reading about the adultery you can miss it altogether.
The novel opens with the the free-spirited and vivacious Effi, age 17, playing on swings with her friends. Effi is most in her element when flying through the air and reveling in her freedom while, at the same time, aware of the danger inherent in such a pursuit. This seemingly innocent play foreshadows the conflicts between Effi’s independent spirit and the danger inherent in the society in which she lives.
Young Effi gets off the swing to meet her future husband, a much older man, Baron Instetten. Effi marries not for love but for luxury and excitement because no other path than marriage and motherhood is open for her in 19th Century Prussian society.
Effi on marriage:
“If it can't be love and affection, for love, as Papa says, is just stuff and nonsense (which I don't actually believe), well then I'm for wealth and a grand house, a very grand house . . .”
Effi on the man her mother chose for her:
”Anybody is the right one. Provided he is an aristocrat and has a position and good looks, naturally.” She gives the socially acceptable answer yet we know she would prefer to marry for love.
Effi’s marriage sets the stage for the inevitable tragic story for both Effi and her husband, each having inherited the strict code of honor and duty which prevailed in 19th Century Prussia. The newly married couple move to Kessin, a Prussian backwater, on the Baltic coast in Pomerania, where he has a position as a district administrator. Instettenn is often absent from home. Suffering from boredom and emotional neglect, Effi allows herself to conduct an affair with Major von Crampas, an ex-army officer who is also unhappy in a bad marriage. Her involvement with him is merely a diversion for her. The affair serves to counteract the social tedium and dearth of entertainment in Effi’s dull and all too provincial life.
6 years later Instettin is elevated to a ministerial position in Berlin and the family (Effi has given birth to a child by now) moves to the capital. Life becomes more eventful and fulfilling for Effi.. Through an unfortunate accident, however, Innstetten finds love letters from Crampas to Effie. Social duty and the prevailing strict code of honor impels him to invite Crampas to duel, against his real instinct and his wish to maintain the status quo of his marriage. The duel results in Crampas’s death. Henceforth Effi, in line with the legally sanctioned procedures in such matters in an age in which women were not granted equal rights, is cast out of her previous life. She is punished by being forbidden access to her daughter and ostracized by polite society. She is deemed to have forfeited any chance of happiness and is even denied a return to her much loved parental home.
Time passes for Effi in undiminished misery; ailments overwhelm her and even the much longed-for, and eventually permitted visit by her little daughter, mortifies her mother by responding like a trained automaton, showing no signs of affection. This meeting has the effect of making Effi’s despair even deeper.
"He was right she told herself, a thousand times right but yet in the last resort, he was wrong."
Effi knows that the socially acceptable response to his harsh criticisms and punishments is to defer and trust. "The man is always right." Effi, however, trusts her intuition just enough to insist that her husband is wrong for casting her out and poisoning their daughter's mind against her own mother. In this denial of social expectation, Effi gains great strength and quiet resolution though she continues to ail.
Effi’s concerned physician, Dr Rummschüttel, succeeds in persuading her hitherto unforgiving parents to take her back to the home that was her only true place of happiness. She now accepts her impending death. She realizes that Innstetten is a small-minded, career-driven and emotionally impoverished individual, who is also clearly a product of his upbringing and environment. Thus she feels able to forgive him. In one of the last exchanges with her mother, she acknowledges generously that he acted in the only way possible for one who ‘had much that is good in his nature and was as noble as someone can be who is without real love.’
This was the saddest and most moving part of the story for me; Effi, on her deathbed, forgiving the man who could not forgive her. Also, it was very sad to watch such a vitally alive young woman become more and more ill as the weight of societal oppression squashed her spirit and she lost all that she loved in life. She was not totally squashed, though; she remained the lovable, spirited and generous human being she was at the beginning of the novel. . Watching her die was heartbreaking. While reading I knew how the story ended but still hoped for a different outcome for Effi.
“This is as it was meant to be."
This is Effi's parents' epithet after her death. that her loving parents dismiss Effi's tragic life as a function of fate and also as the consequence of disobeying society's dictates. Such loving parents hardly seemed to mourn the death of their only child.
In conversations with his closest friend, Innstetten acknowledges that he has been fundamentally changed; he voices regret and finds himself unable to take pleasure in further professional advancement. He is tormented by the feeling that all of his career ambition is actually meaningless, and that the duel, which set in motion all the repercussions for Effi, was a mistake too.
This story was based on the life of a woman about whom Fontane read in the newspaper. Armand Léon von Ardenne had killed Emil Hartwich, a local magistrate who had been sleeping with the former's wife, Elisabeth von Plotho. His divorce on 15 March 1887 gave him full custody of his children, and his ex-wife set about caring for the deprived and disabled. Her name was temporarily removed from the family chronicles. In 1904, her daughter Margot was the first to try to find her; her son Egmont saw her in 1909. She died in 1952, age 98, and was interred in a Berlin grave of honor.
Fontane clearly changed the story in order to make a point about the society in which he lived.
November 6, 2015
German novelist, Thomas Mann, said that if he could only have six novels on his bookshelf, Effi Briest would be one of them. Effi Briest (1896), Theodore Fontane's Realist novel, tells the story of seventeen year old Effi, her arranged marriage to a much older man, her youthful, almost innocent, mistake of being seduced into adultery, and her tragic fall from grace and from her position in society.
Effi Briest has been compared to Madam Bovary and Anna Karenina because of it's subject matter, but it is much more subtle than either of these classics. Tolstoy and Flaubert described the adulterous acts of their protagonists in graphic detail, whereas Fontane only alludes to it, almost as an afterthought. He focuses on the reasons behind the event, the influences of society and class, and the impact that seemingly small transgressions have on individuals and the people around them.
I loved this novel and felt a strong connection with the charactrler Effi. This is definitely one of those overlooked and under appreciated classics.
4.5 stars
Effi Briest has been compared to Madam Bovary and Anna Karenina because of it's subject matter, but it is much more subtle than either of these classics. Tolstoy and Flaubert described the adulterous acts of their protagonists in graphic detail, whereas Fontane only alludes to it, almost as an afterthought. He focuses on the reasons behind the event, the influences of society and class, and the impact that seemingly small transgressions have on individuals and the people around them.
I loved this novel and felt a strong connection with the charactrler Effi. This is definitely one of those overlooked and under appreciated classics.
4.5 stars
July 25, 2023
I left this book a long time on my To-Read shelf because I thought it was a depressing naturalistic novel, typical for the late 19th century. You know, with characters defined by their origins, under immense social pressure, and ingloriously lost to their predetermined fate. But when I finally got into it, it felt like a light-hearted society novel, Jane Austen-like, including the main character's bickering father and mother. Of course, that turned out to be incorrect as well: this novel indeed is the story of a downfall, focusing on the young lady Effi, scion of a lower nobility family in Bismarck's Prussia (Herr Bismarck also has some relevance to the story). And social pressure is definitely there, especially in the experience of Effi's husband Geert von Instetten, who puts it aptly after the dramatic turn in the story: “Wherever men live together, something has been established that's just there, and it's a code we've become accustomed to judging everything by, ourselves as well as others. And going against it is unacceptable; society despices you for it, and in the end you despise yourself, you can't bear it any longer and put a gun to your head.”
Fontane has spiced up his story with gothic elements (the China man who acts as bogeyman, the dark forest, etc). And Effi's drama inevitably is reminiscent of Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina. Only, that comparison leaves me with a bit of ambiguous feelings: the character Effi sticks too much to the surface for me; Fontane seems to suggest that her adultery is purely caused by boredom, thus confirming the picture of a spoiled girl who went down because she married too young, purely out of convention and not love. In contrast with that her husband, the 'perfect' but boring von Instetten, appears to be more layered.
What I enjoyed most in this novel were the conversations between Effi's father and mother. Each in their own way, they know perfectly how to put their finger on the wound. But in the end they also have to confess their impotence, because the vicissitudes of life seem “too vast a subject”.
I can recommend a look at the really excellent review of my friend Jan-Maat: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Fontane has spiced up his story with gothic elements (the China man who acts as bogeyman, the dark forest, etc). And Effi's drama inevitably is reminiscent of Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina. Only, that comparison leaves me with a bit of ambiguous feelings: the character Effi sticks too much to the surface for me; Fontane seems to suggest that her adultery is purely caused by boredom, thus confirming the picture of a spoiled girl who went down because she married too young, purely out of convention and not love. In contrast with that her husband, the 'perfect' but boring von Instetten, appears to be more layered.
What I enjoyed most in this novel were the conversations between Effi's father and mother. Each in their own way, they know perfectly how to put their finger on the wound. But in the end they also have to confess their impotence, because the vicissitudes of life seem “too vast a subject”.
I can recommend a look at the really excellent review of my friend Jan-Maat: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
March 20, 2016
Wenn ich jemals ein wirklich langweiliges Buch gelesen habe, dann war das Effie Briest. Die Schreibweise von Fontane ist für mich der reinste Horror, weil sie die interessanten Dinge kurz und knapp und die uninteressanten ausführlichst behandelte, die Charaktere, allen voran Effie selbst, waren unsympathisch und insgesamt fällt mir absolut nichts ein, was mir an diesem Buch gefallen hat.
December 23, 2015
Durante la lettura di Effie Briest il mio pensiero correva spesso a “Madame Bovary”. Sì, perché ho letto alcuni commenti che descrivevano questo personaggio come una “Madame Bovary germanica”.
In realtà Emma ed Effie sono completamente diverse.
Leggere la storia di Emma Bovary è come sorseggiare una coppa di ottimo spumante, pieno di bollicine che pizzicano la lingua e fanno starnutire, accompagnato a cibi raffinati per palati esigenti. Prezioso come la scrittura di Flaubert.
Leggere Effie Briest è come sorseggiare un buon bicchiere di vino rosso “fermo” che non lascia effetti immediati nel palato ma poi ti ritrovi con l’aroma in bocca che dura a lungo. Accompagnato ad un saporito arrosto di carni. Non ci sono abbellimenti e preziosità nella scrittura di Fontane, non ci sono esibizionismi o virtuosismi. Quello che importa per lo scrittore, considerato il massimo esponente del realismo tedesco, è descrivere gli ambienti e soprattutto le abitudini della buona società prussiana di fine ottocento, in cui il “senso dell’onore” – e non l’amore ed i sentimenti- è posto al centro dei rapporti familiari in modo ossessivo. Effie è una farfalla imprigionata all’interno di una ragnatela che stringe e condiziona l’esistenza sua e della sua famiglia, rappresentata da regole e convenzioni stupide ma rigorose ed insuperabili, che impongono il matrimonio a 17 anni, che impongono “automaticamente” al marito tradito il duello per lavare l’onta del proprio onore e dell’orgoglio feriti, nonchè l'allontanamento e il successivo divorzio dalla fedifraga. Quello che emerge è un quadro reale e tragico della protagonista, verso la quale non possiamo che avere comprensione e compassione, insieme con Fontane, perché Effie è “una figlia dell’aria”, che aspira a una vita di tenerezza ed amore ma è condannata all’isolamento sociale e familiare senza un motivo ragionevole.
Thomas Mann scrisse che se una biblioteca della letteratura romanzesca dovesse restringersi a una dozzina di volumi, a dieci, a sei, non potrebbe essere priva di Effie Briest.
Come una buona cantina non dovrebbe essere priva di una bottiglia di Merlot o di Barbera.
In realtà Emma ed Effie sono completamente diverse.
Leggere la storia di Emma Bovary è come sorseggiare una coppa di ottimo spumante, pieno di bollicine che pizzicano la lingua e fanno starnutire, accompagnato a cibi raffinati per palati esigenti. Prezioso come la scrittura di Flaubert.
Leggere Effie Briest è come sorseggiare un buon bicchiere di vino rosso “fermo” che non lascia effetti immediati nel palato ma poi ti ritrovi con l’aroma in bocca che dura a lungo. Accompagnato ad un saporito arrosto di carni. Non ci sono abbellimenti e preziosità nella scrittura di Fontane, non ci sono esibizionismi o virtuosismi. Quello che importa per lo scrittore, considerato il massimo esponente del realismo tedesco, è descrivere gli ambienti e soprattutto le abitudini della buona società prussiana di fine ottocento, in cui il “senso dell’onore” – e non l’amore ed i sentimenti- è posto al centro dei rapporti familiari in modo ossessivo. Effie è una farfalla imprigionata all’interno di una ragnatela che stringe e condiziona l’esistenza sua e della sua famiglia, rappresentata da regole e convenzioni stupide ma rigorose ed insuperabili, che impongono il matrimonio a 17 anni, che impongono “automaticamente” al marito tradito il duello per lavare l’onta del proprio onore e dell’orgoglio feriti, nonchè l'allontanamento e il successivo divorzio dalla fedifraga. Quello che emerge è un quadro reale e tragico della protagonista, verso la quale non possiamo che avere comprensione e compassione, insieme con Fontane, perché Effie è “una figlia dell’aria”, che aspira a una vita di tenerezza ed amore ma è condannata all’isolamento sociale e familiare senza un motivo ragionevole.
Thomas Mann scrisse che se una biblioteca della letteratura romanzesca dovesse restringersi a una dozzina di volumi, a dieci, a sei, non potrebbe essere priva di Effie Briest.
Come una buona cantina non dovrebbe essere priva di una bottiglia di Merlot o di Barbera.
June 16, 2019
Ich frage mich, ob man diesen Roman in größeren Abständen immer wieder lesen sollte, weil er mir bei meiner nunmehr vierten Lektüre besser denn je erscheint. Und auch wenn die zahlreichen Motive, die Vorausdeutungen und der gesellschaftliche Hintergrund Effi Briest zur idealen Schullektüre machen, so können Teenager diese Geschichte, schon wegen der Langsamkeit, kaum schätzen und stehen dann ihr Leben lang mit dieser Geschichte und mit Fontane auf Kriegsfuß.
Eine Ehebruchsgeschichte wird erzählt, doch wird der Ehebruch kaum erwähnt. Er geschieht, fast ohne dass es der Leser bemerkt. Dabei gibt es zahlreiche Andeutungen, auch darauf welch bitteres Ende die Geschichte nehmen wird, aber dennoch spielt der „Skandal“ selbst kaum eine Rolle.
Genau das habe ich sehr genossen. Nicht das Geschehen selbst hat mich in Bann gezogen, sondern die vielen immer wiederkehrenden Motive (wie z.B. der Kirchhof), die genauen Beschreibungen fiktiver und realer Orte wie Berlin und Rügen, die sich wunderbar anhand alter Karten und Fotos nachvollziehen lassen, die Charaktere, die alles andere als eindimensional sind (auch, und vielleicht gerade nicht Baron von Innstetten, der ebenfalls an den gesellschaftlichen Zwängen leidet). Und damit ist vielleicht schon das Hauptthema Fontanes genannt: Nicht der Ehebruch, sondern was diese strenge, preußische Gesellschaftsordnung den Menschen aufzwingt und wie diese in einem ewigen Zwiespalt stecken: Einerseits den ihnen zugewiesenen Rollen entsprechen zu wollen, andererseits daran scheitern oder damit unglücklich werden. Ein wunderbares Zeitdokument ist der Roman auch noch, die französischen Ausdrücke, die Einrichtungsbeschreibungen, solche kleinen Details, wie die werdende Mutter, die Sherry trinkt und der Zug, in dem es eine vierte Klasse gibt…
Auch hat die erneute Lektüre Bilder in mir wachgerufen. Die Reitausflüge von Effi und Crampas am Strand erinnern an ähnliche Motive bei Max Liebermann (ich glaube, sie waren auch mal Cover-Motiv einer Ausgabe) und auch zu Beginn erinnerten mich die Gartenbeschreibungen an Bilder Liebermanns, auf denen Sonnenflecke auf dem Boden der Parks sichtbar werden.
Viele Assoziationen ermöglicht der Roman also, die bei einmaliger Lektüre keinesfalls ausgeschöpft werden, und man wird bei Lesen angenehm verlangsamt.
Eine Ehebruchsgeschichte wird erzählt, doch wird der Ehebruch kaum erwähnt. Er geschieht, fast ohne dass es der Leser bemerkt. Dabei gibt es zahlreiche Andeutungen, auch darauf welch bitteres Ende die Geschichte nehmen wird, aber dennoch spielt der „Skandal“ selbst kaum eine Rolle.
Genau das habe ich sehr genossen. Nicht das Geschehen selbst hat mich in Bann gezogen, sondern die vielen immer wiederkehrenden Motive (wie z.B. der Kirchhof), die genauen Beschreibungen fiktiver und realer Orte wie Berlin und Rügen, die sich wunderbar anhand alter Karten und Fotos nachvollziehen lassen, die Charaktere, die alles andere als eindimensional sind (auch, und vielleicht gerade nicht Baron von Innstetten, der ebenfalls an den gesellschaftlichen Zwängen leidet). Und damit ist vielleicht schon das Hauptthema Fontanes genannt: Nicht der Ehebruch, sondern was diese strenge, preußische Gesellschaftsordnung den Menschen aufzwingt und wie diese in einem ewigen Zwiespalt stecken: Einerseits den ihnen zugewiesenen Rollen entsprechen zu wollen, andererseits daran scheitern oder damit unglücklich werden. Ein wunderbares Zeitdokument ist der Roman auch noch, die französischen Ausdrücke, die Einrichtungsbeschreibungen, solche kleinen Details, wie die werdende Mutter, die Sherry trinkt und der Zug, in dem es eine vierte Klasse gibt…
Auch hat die erneute Lektüre Bilder in mir wachgerufen. Die Reitausflüge von Effi und Crampas am Strand erinnern an ähnliche Motive bei Max Liebermann (ich glaube, sie waren auch mal Cover-Motiv einer Ausgabe) und auch zu Beginn erinnerten mich die Gartenbeschreibungen an Bilder Liebermanns, auf denen Sonnenflecke auf dem Boden der Parks sichtbar werden.
Viele Assoziationen ermöglicht der Roman also, die bei einmaliger Lektüre keinesfalls ausgeschöpft werden, und man wird bei Lesen angenehm verlangsamt.
November 18, 2019
This is one of those classics of German literature that I enjoyed reading much more after graduating from university, where reading such great literature was required, forced, rushed and dissected until its beauty was no longer visible. It's a book I might soon enjoy reading a third time (and maybe even give it another star). I am giving another of Fontane's greats, Der Stechlin, an identical "review".
June 16, 2019
Die Welt ist einmal, wie sie ist, und die Dinge verlaufen nicht, wie wir wollen, sondern wie die andern wollen. Das mit dem ›Gottesgericht‹, wie manche hochtrabend versichern, ist freilich ein Unsinn, nichts davon, umgekehrt, unser Ehrenkultus ist ein Götzendienst, aber wir müssen uns ihm unterwerfen, solange der Götze gilt.Wo die Pflicht gegenüber den Ansprüchen der Gemeinschaft höher wiegt, als die eigenen Wünsche und Gefühle, kann Glück nicht gedeihen. Gerade an einem leidenschaftlichen, ungestümen Charakter, wie Effi, beweist sich diese traurige Wahrheit. Doch Effi ist nicht das einzige Opfer eines strengen Sittenkodex, der den kleinsten Fehltritt unbarmherzig bestraft. Alle Beteiligten in dieser Tragödie sind am Ende auf ihre eigene Art Gefangene ihres überhöhten Anspruchs auf Tugendhaftigkeit. Eine Haltung, die uns heute absolut fremd erscheint. Fontane moralisiert nicht, sondern zeigt das wilhelminische Preußen in all seiner Widersprüchlichkeit. Denn instinktiv wissen alle in ihrem Herzen, dass die Konventionen leere Hüllen sind und nichts dagegen spräche zugunsten menschlicher Regungen davon abzulassen. Die Komödie wird allerdings bis zur letzten tragischen Konsequenz weitergespielt.
In "Effi Briest" zeigt sich Theodor Fontane auf der Höhe seiner Kunst. Es dauerte eine ganze Weile bis das Buch mich für sich einnehmen konnte. Erst mit fortschreitender Entwicklung der Handlung erkennt man die raffinierte Konstruktion. Zu jedem Motiv findet sich eine Entsprechung, so dass ein dichtes Gewebe aus wechselseitigen Anspielungen und Verweisen, die einzelnen Abschnitte miteinander verbindet. Kein Wunder, dass das Buch, angesichts der mannigfaltigen Deutungsmöglichkeiten, zum Liebling aller Deutschlehrer und -lehrinnen avancierte (und zum Schrecken vieler Schüler). Was mir bei Fontane (jedenfalls in den Büchern, die ich kenne) immer gefällt, ist sein Blick für die Nebenfiguren. Er hat ein Händchen dafür selbst die kleinen Rollen mit Charakterköpfen zu besetzen, die noch lange im Gedächtnis bleiben. Einmal mehr hat er mich nicht enttäuscht.
June 30, 2019
Am Ende stehen Fragen. Ob sie nicht doch vielleicht zu jung war?, fragen sich Effis Eltern nach deren Tod. Ob ich wohl in den Himmel komme?, fragt sich Effi, nachdem sie von ihrem Ehemann verstoßen zu ihren Eltern zurückgekehrt ist, und dieser Ehemann fragt seinen Freund, der nach einer Lebenskrise sein „kleines Glück“ im Amüsement und Alkohol sucht: Und das genügt Ihnen?
Diese Fragen weisen auf die allgemein menschliche Dimension, weshalb dieser Roman weiterhin aktuell und lesenswert ist. Leider ist dies aber nicht der Hauptgrund, weshalb er in deutschen Schulen Pflichtlektüre ist. Dort geht es um die großartige Konstruktion voller Querbezüge, Hinweise und Anspielungen, an denen Lehrer ihre Überlegenheit demonstrieren können (und damit selbst zu kleinen Instettens werden). Anders als oben geschildert, bleiben die Fragen im Unterricht nicht offen, sondern müssen erschöpfend beantwortet werden. Der Roman wird seziert, so dass man am Ende nur noch die einzelnen Organe in Nierenschalen vor sich sieht. Dann wird zum Abschluss eine Klausur geschrieben und – „Klappe zu, Affe tot“ – das Thema Fontane ist für die Schüler abgeschlossen, häufig lebenslänglich.
Mir ist es beinahe auch so ergangen, wobei in meinem Fall Unterm Birnbaum im Anatomiesaal lag. Erst ein Hörbuch des Der Stechlin: Roman hat mir Fontane wieder nähergebracht, so dass ich jetzt, im Fontane-Jahr, seine Romane endlich auch als Leser wieder genießen kann. Selbst das ausführliche Nachwort von Dr. phil. Dirk Mende habe ich mit Freude und Interesse gelesen.
Ich will nicht in die Falle meiner Kollegen (schließlich bin ich selbst Lehrer) tappen und hier die Analyse duplizieren. Was mir allerdings ins Auge gefallen ist, ist der aktuelle Bezug zur Frage eines übersteigerten Ehrbegriffs, in dessen Namen auch heute noch Menschen ihr Leben lassen müssen.
Diese Fragen weisen auf die allgemein menschliche Dimension, weshalb dieser Roman weiterhin aktuell und lesenswert ist. Leider ist dies aber nicht der Hauptgrund, weshalb er in deutschen Schulen Pflichtlektüre ist. Dort geht es um die großartige Konstruktion voller Querbezüge, Hinweise und Anspielungen, an denen Lehrer ihre Überlegenheit demonstrieren können (und damit selbst zu kleinen Instettens werden). Anders als oben geschildert, bleiben die Fragen im Unterricht nicht offen, sondern müssen erschöpfend beantwortet werden. Der Roman wird seziert, so dass man am Ende nur noch die einzelnen Organe in Nierenschalen vor sich sieht. Dann wird zum Abschluss eine Klausur geschrieben und – „Klappe zu, Affe tot“ – das Thema Fontane ist für die Schüler abgeschlossen, häufig lebenslänglich.
Mir ist es beinahe auch so ergangen, wobei in meinem Fall Unterm Birnbaum im Anatomiesaal lag. Erst ein Hörbuch des Der Stechlin: Roman hat mir Fontane wieder nähergebracht, so dass ich jetzt, im Fontane-Jahr, seine Romane endlich auch als Leser wieder genießen kann. Selbst das ausführliche Nachwort von Dr. phil. Dirk Mende habe ich mit Freude und Interesse gelesen.
Ich will nicht in die Falle meiner Kollegen (schließlich bin ich selbst Lehrer) tappen und hier die Analyse duplizieren. Was mir allerdings ins Auge gefallen ist, ist der aktuelle Bezug zur Frage eines übersteigerten Ehrbegriffs, in dessen Namen auch heute noch Menschen ihr Leben lassen müssen.
August 24, 2021
Se un romanzo fonda la sua storia sull’adulterio è giusto citarlo assieme a “Madame Bovary” (1856) e ad “Anna Karenina”(1877)?
Io risponderei negativamente tanto più che non solo per l’ambientazione le storie sono molto differenti ma proprio per le donne protagoniste.
Effi Briest (1895) è una ragazza di diciassette anni che ci viene presentata nei primi due capitoli proprio come una bambina.
Non è un caso che stia giocando con le amiche in giardino quando la mamma continua a richiamarla perché è arrivato un ospite.
E’ il prefetto di Kessin, una cittadina della Pomerania, un ambizioso uomo di cinquant'anni stimato da Bismark.
Il suo nome è Innstetten ed è venuto a chiedere la mano di Effi e così nel giro di pochi minuti si combina un matrimonio.
Dalle grida con le amiche con cui giocava a nascondino si passa alla preparazione dei corredi.
Effi, nella sua ingenuità non si oppone e non lo fa perché recita il suo ruolo di donna ammaestrata al ruolo che le compete ma realmente nella sua testolina pensa cose come questa:
« Tutti son “buoni”, basta che siano nobili e abbiano una buona posizione e un bell’aspetto»
Il romanzo si stende in un lungo arco di tempo e vediamo così la crescita di Effi che vede frantumarsi ogni fantasticheria infantile con la realtà di un rigido mondo delle convenzioni:
” La realtà è un’altra, e spesso è bene che invece di luci e riverberi ci sia il buio.”
Effi tradisce essenzialmente per noia.
Un momento fugace come un lampo e che il lettore stesso scopre quando è già accaduto.
Il tema, infatti, non è tanto l’atto in sé ma sulle conseguenze: paura, vergogna, rabbia.
Ma soprattutto c’ è una domanda martellante:
è giusto perdonare qualcosa che è dietro le spalle?
Il tempo cancella una colpa?
Bel classico.
Io risponderei negativamente tanto più che non solo per l’ambientazione le storie sono molto differenti ma proprio per le donne protagoniste.
Effi Briest (1895) è una ragazza di diciassette anni che ci viene presentata nei primi due capitoli proprio come una bambina.
Non è un caso che stia giocando con le amiche in giardino quando la mamma continua a richiamarla perché è arrivato un ospite.
E’ il prefetto di Kessin, una cittadina della Pomerania, un ambizioso uomo di cinquant'anni stimato da Bismark.
Il suo nome è Innstetten ed è venuto a chiedere la mano di Effi e così nel giro di pochi minuti si combina un matrimonio.
Dalle grida con le amiche con cui giocava a nascondino si passa alla preparazione dei corredi.
Effi, nella sua ingenuità non si oppone e non lo fa perché recita il suo ruolo di donna ammaestrata al ruolo che le compete ma realmente nella sua testolina pensa cose come questa:
« Tutti son “buoni”, basta che siano nobili e abbiano una buona posizione e un bell’aspetto»
Il romanzo si stende in un lungo arco di tempo e vediamo così la crescita di Effi che vede frantumarsi ogni fantasticheria infantile con la realtà di un rigido mondo delle convenzioni:
” La realtà è un’altra, e spesso è bene che invece di luci e riverberi ci sia il buio.”
Effi tradisce essenzialmente per noia.
Un momento fugace come un lampo e che il lettore stesso scopre quando è già accaduto.
Il tema, infatti, non è tanto l’atto in sé ma sulle conseguenze: paura, vergogna, rabbia.
Ma soprattutto c’ è una domanda martellante:
è giusto perdonare qualcosa che è dietro le spalle?
Il tempo cancella una colpa?
Bel classico.
December 31, 2025
Precedentemente dello scrittore tedesco Theodor Fontane [1819-1898] avevo letto soltanto “Cecile” che mi era piaciuto ma non mi aveva colpito profondamente come “Effi Briest” pubblicato nel 1895: la protagonista va in sposa diciassettenne a un antico corteggiatore della madre ma ben presto l’importante differenza di età e di indole tra i due coniugi scava un solco di incomprensione solo apparentemente colmabile con i viaggi, le scampagnate, i tentativi di socializzare con le famiglie più in vista perché la solitudine interiore e l’isolamento porterà Effi a “sbagliare” e a pagare duramente la colpa.
Romanzo in cui risalta il senso di solitudine della protagonista, lei così giovane ed esuberante e piena di voglia di vivere, imprigionata e oppressa, impossibilitata ad affrancarsi dalle catene di una società soffocante e affettata, vuota di sentimenti veri.
La scrittura dello scrittore piana e dai toni sommessi fa risaltare ancor di più il dramma a cui assiste impietrito il lettore.
Romanzo in cui risalta il senso di solitudine della protagonista, lei così giovane ed esuberante e piena di voglia di vivere, imprigionata e oppressa, impossibilitata ad affrancarsi dalle catene di una società soffocante e affettata, vuota di sentimenti veri.
La scrittura dello scrittore piana e dai toni sommessi fa risaltare ancor di più il dramma a cui assiste impietrito il lettore.
January 2, 2024
"Du bist eigentlich ein Zärtlichkeitsmensch und unterm Liebesstern geboren. Du willst es bloss nicht zeigen und denkst, es schickt sich nicht und verdirbt einem die Karriere"
Effi zu ihrem Ehemann.
Effi Briest zerbricht an den gesellschaftlichen Konventionen, die ihr der obersten Gesellschaftsschicht zugehöriger Ehemann und ihre Eltern, vor allem die Mutter für wichtiger als Gefühle halten.
Die Dialoge sind elegant, Fontane beschreibt die Charaktere sehr differenziert und übt leise Gesellschaftskritik, vor allem an den damals vorherrschenden moralischen Werten.
Effi zu ihrem Ehemann.
Effi Briest zerbricht an den gesellschaftlichen Konventionen, die ihr der obersten Gesellschaftsschicht zugehöriger Ehemann und ihre Eltern, vor allem die Mutter für wichtiger als Gefühle halten.
Die Dialoge sind elegant, Fontane beschreibt die Charaktere sehr differenziert und übt leise Gesellschaftskritik, vor allem an den damals vorherrschenden moralischen Werten.
Read
March 28, 2019Fontane wasn't terribly good at making stuff up. He tended to take real life incidents to seed his imagination. In this case the model for Effi Briest was Elisabeth von Plotho, whose affair with a local magistrate, Emil Hartwich, became serious enough for them to consider divorcing their respective spouses until Elisabeth's husband, Armand Léon von Ardenne, became suspicious, broke open Elisabeth's secret stash of love letters, used them in evidence in his own divorce proceedings, and further challenged Hartwich to a duel.
Fontane casts his own spell on the well-worn love triangle motif. Effi is young, terribly young, and is married off to her own mother's old flame, something that tends to give the reader goose bumps, surely, this cannot end well? Her husband is an ambitious Prussian administrator who leaves her alone too frequently in a dull little coastal bathing resort while he travels to Berlin to attend to the Prince, happy to see his pretty young wife courted and attended on by a seemingly toothless tiger, the elderly local apothecary, and who feels furthermore that he is protected from possible harm by his judicious use of a spooky dead Chinaman to subjugate and enervate his young bride. But Effi is a force of nature, an incarnation of the white goddess Hertha/Perchta/Frigga/Frau Holle, as little able to resist her fate as a figure in mythology. More goose bumps when Major Crampas arrives on the scene - for the name is so reminiscent of Krampus, those terrifying creatures that have been subsumed into official religion as the other side of Saint Nicolas but are in fact part of the wild horde of ghosts and ghoulies that ride roughshod through the raw nights at the change of year.
It's made very clear that Effi is embattled, beleaguered, persecuted. She knows what is coming, futilely conjures the image of a woman left behind the lines in a war who prays for protection from the advancing enemy and is rewarded by a wall of snow around her home .... but there is no such divine intervention for Effi.
It's made very plain that she does not love Crampas. This is not passion, she feels nothing but relief when she manages to escape to Berlin, modern and fashionable and promotion for her husband.
And it's made very plain too that Innstetten, her husband, is as much a prisoner of the conventions of the time as she is, both of them equally trapped, both of them equally tragic.
But there's a niggling little flaw in this method of construction. Fontane has put his own original stamp on this story, but there is a troublesome fact that he still has to work in. Thus a sewing box is broken open, and incriminating letters are found, years later, but they are found and it is out, out in the world and known about. My question: if Effi didn't love Crampas and was so relieved to escape from him, why on earth would she keep his letters? As her worldly friend says, that's what stoves and fires are for.
Fontane casts his own spell on the well-worn love triangle motif. Effi is young, terribly young, and is married off to her own mother's old flame, something that tends to give the reader goose bumps, surely, this cannot end well? Her husband is an ambitious Prussian administrator who leaves her alone too frequently in a dull little coastal bathing resort while he travels to Berlin to attend to the Prince, happy to see his pretty young wife courted and attended on by a seemingly toothless tiger, the elderly local apothecary, and who feels furthermore that he is protected from possible harm by his judicious use of a spooky dead Chinaman to subjugate and enervate his young bride. But Effi is a force of nature, an incarnation of the white goddess Hertha/Perchta/Frigga/Frau Holle, as little able to resist her fate as a figure in mythology. More goose bumps when Major Crampas arrives on the scene - for the name is so reminiscent of Krampus, those terrifying creatures that have been subsumed into official religion as the other side of Saint Nicolas but are in fact part of the wild horde of ghosts and ghoulies that ride roughshod through the raw nights at the change of year.
It's made very clear that Effi is embattled, beleaguered, persecuted. She knows what is coming, futilely conjures the image of a woman left behind the lines in a war who prays for protection from the advancing enemy and is rewarded by a wall of snow around her home .... but there is no such divine intervention for Effi.
It's made very plain that she does not love Crampas. This is not passion, she feels nothing but relief when she manages to escape to Berlin, modern and fashionable and promotion for her husband.
And it's made very plain too that Innstetten, her husband, is as much a prisoner of the conventions of the time as she is, both of them equally trapped, both of them equally tragic.
But there's a niggling little flaw in this method of construction. Fontane has put his own original stamp on this story, but there is a troublesome fact that he still has to work in. Thus a sewing box is broken open, and incriminating letters are found, years later, but they are found and it is out, out in the world and known about. My question: if Effi didn't love Crampas and was so relieved to escape from him, why on earth would she keep his letters? As her worldly friend says, that's what stoves and fires are for.
December 9, 2018
This was quit different from British classics, which I normally read.
First of all, most of it was more subtle and less dramatic. It is about an unhappy marriage but it's neither terrible nor abusive it's just flawed: both husband and wife are actually to a certain extent nice and likeable people, even if they have their issues. Also there was no passionate adoration for a lover or other clichés, everything was really toned down and felt more realistic, like similar things could have happened to everyone. This subtlety was kind of abandoned when a certain discovery is made and Geert chose to do something "just because". It wasn't totally unbelievable, it just bugged me that even he knew it was a stupid idea but did it nonetheless.
However, I really liked the characters, which were interesting and stood out to me compared to characters from other classic novels, they had great dialogs with only some bordering on being too trivial. Effie changes noticably, while in the beginning she reminded me of Anne of Green Gables, the whole book was far from this association later on.
The way marriage and engagement were portrayed was unique to me. How Effi was supposed to love her fiancé she has seen once and exchanged a few letters with, how sudden the engagement was and the little insights she gave into her marriage and her feelings were unexpected and fascinating.
I adored the ending. The outcome of classics has been hit or miss for me this year, leaving me often feeling that I wasn't sure if they were supposed to make me happy. I knew exactly how to feel about this one and the final few words Effi's parents say are just perfect.
I also fangirled a little since this book is set very close to were I live, by the way. :D
First of all, most of it was more subtle and less dramatic. It is about an unhappy marriage but it's neither terrible nor abusive it's just flawed: both husband and wife are actually to a certain extent nice and likeable people, even if they have their issues. Also there was no passionate adoration for a lover or other clichés, everything was really toned down and felt more realistic, like similar things could have happened to everyone. This subtlety was kind of abandoned when a certain discovery is made and Geert chose to do something "just because". It wasn't totally unbelievable, it just bugged me that even he knew it was a stupid idea but did it nonetheless.
However, I really liked the characters, which were interesting and stood out to me compared to characters from other classic novels, they had great dialogs with only some bordering on being too trivial. Effie changes noticably, while in the beginning she reminded me of Anne of Green Gables, the whole book was far from this association later on.
The way marriage and engagement were portrayed was unique to me. How Effi was supposed to love her fiancé she has seen once and exchanged a few letters with, how sudden the engagement was and the little insights she gave into her marriage and her feelings were unexpected and fascinating.
I adored the ending. The outcome of classics has been hit or miss for me this year, leaving me often feeling that I wasn't sure if they were supposed to make me happy. I knew exactly how to feel about this one and the final few words Effi's parents say are just perfect.
I also fangirled a little since this book is set very close to were I live, by the way. :D
July 4, 2015
Introduction
Translator's Note
--Effi Briest
Notes
Translator's Note
--Effi Briest
Notes
November 26, 2023
Und was lernen wir daraus? Mit 17 Jahren ist es noch zu früh den alten Galan der Mama zu heiraten. Und diskreditierende Briefe schmeißt man weg und hebt sie nicht 6 Jahre auf.
December 16, 2021
Beautifully unsentimental and haunting.
I am still surprised by how entirely absorbing this one was. The set-up is one most will recognise: a spirited and unworldly young woman packed off into an advantageous but emotionally-lacking marriage. Effi Briest is a tale of female infidelity, aligned closely with the likes of Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, and yet entirely original in its own right.
The stark contrast between Effi’s idyllic Brandenburg childhood and her marital home on the fringes of Pomerania is a chilling one. It’s an isolated and transitory place, where travellers and holiday-makers pass like ghosts, and Effi is left alone with her own desires and fears. The unfamiliar setting left me unsettled in a way I can’t entirely articulate which is of course testimony to Fontane’s writing and this excellent translation. Perhaps it is the thought of being the only thing that’s left. This is also an unutterably sad novel, even if the ending is always inevitable.
I could go on with the emotions this strange story elicited, but it is difficult to review a work I do not feel qualified to review. In the words of Briest: that would, of course, be too vast a field.
I am still surprised by how entirely absorbing this one was. The set-up is one most will recognise: a spirited and unworldly young woman packed off into an advantageous but emotionally-lacking marriage. Effi Briest is a tale of female infidelity, aligned closely with the likes of Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, and yet entirely original in its own right.
The stark contrast between Effi’s idyllic Brandenburg childhood and her marital home on the fringes of Pomerania is a chilling one. It’s an isolated and transitory place, where travellers and holiday-makers pass like ghosts, and Effi is left alone with her own desires and fears. The unfamiliar setting left me unsettled in a way I can’t entirely articulate which is of course testimony to Fontane’s writing and this excellent translation. Perhaps it is the thought of being the only thing that’s left. This is also an unutterably sad novel, even if the ending is always inevitable.
I could go on with the emotions this strange story elicited, but it is difficult to review a work I do not feel qualified to review. In the words of Briest: that would, of course, be too vast a field.
July 20, 2013
Effie Briest is the name of the tragic heroine here, so this is like the Madame Bovary of Germany, because the author was born in Berlin and this was originally published in German in 1894--118 years ago.
The original title in German was the same: Effie Briest. When it was translated into English the title was retained (names shouldn't be translated) so when I first got hold of a copy of this book last 12 February 2012 I thought "Effie Briest" was some kind of a German philosophical concept. It didn't sound like a person's name to me, unlike Madame Bovary. That could explain, too, why I didn't touch it for a long time. Philosophical works by Germans can give me a headache.
Maybe a better title would have been "Fraulein Briest" (with Umlauts--two dots--above the "a") and with that this novel would have been as famous as Madame Bovary. Not only would it be immediately understood that the novel is about a woman, but the title would have carried a hint of excitement (as "briest" looks the same as "breast") like that of Madame Bovary (bovine, a woman who follows man's every whim like she's a cattle).
But that didn't happen so enough of these little jokes. Let me tell you now the story so you don't have to read the book yourself.
I know for a fact that students of literature in our local colleges and universities (maybe happening also in other countries) would go to goodreads to get summaries of books assigned to them for reading or for reports. Let me tell you this clever dudes: your professor can also go to goodreads and compare your work with those reviews appearing here. So if you are smarter than him/her, don't plagiarize extensively verbatim. Get one short sentence from each review, then change words using a thesaurus. So even if your professor would strongly suspect that you didn't really read the book, at least he/she won't have the evidence to flunk you outright and recommend your expulsion.
Let's get on now with the story.
The setting is in Prussia (now a part of the country called Germany), 19th century, and right off the first few pages the author trusts before your eyes Effie Briest herself, an only child, just 17 years old, pretty, fresh, virginal, playing with her girlfriends, saying silly things 17-year-old girls say. Just a few pages more she'll be betrothed with her mother's former suitor, a guy named Baron Innstetten, 20 years her senior, moneyed, a high-ranking local official with bright prospects for further political advancement. A good catch. But this is NOT the usual melodrama one sees in TV soap operas where a young girl is forced into marriage with a rich dirty old man by her parents for money even if she's in love with another guy her age. No. Effie Briest readily consents to it and even if she is asked, one time, if she would rather marry her Cousin Briest of which she had shown fondness of she said of course not, SHE prefers the more mature and dependable Baron.
With the childlike, playful and adventurous Effie Briest vividly painted in your mind, you can already feel a disaster is bound to happen. And don't ask how this can even be possible because as I've told you, this is 19th century Prussia. The way they were. The author taking you back in time, when what a 17-year-old girl looks forward to was not going to college but marrying someone her parents had picked for her as a suitable partner for life.
So they got married. Effie immediately has a baby girl. The Baron is away, busy with work, most of the time. You know how it is with guys nearing 50 with lots of work, worries and busy with their careers. So Effie is always alone in their conjugal abode with their housemaids, her dog, and she misses her own town, the people there, her parents, her playmates, then she feels and sees ghosts in the house at night alone in her bed. Somewhat like Madame Bovary with her husband-doctor, communing with the farm animals in their provincial place.
Now comes Crampas, friend to the Baron, a gambler, society man and lady-killer who detests his wife. Once Crampas enters the scene you (plagiarizing students) tell your professor that you started to read slowly. For the affair between Effie Briest and Crampas is only delicately HINTED. You'd know that they fuck in the woods, during Effie's innumerable walks (for exercise, she says) alone--or maybe sometimes with her dog Rollo watching humpings which he himself does with native bitches. You tell your professor this is why you consider this a great novel, and Theodor Fontane a great novelist: that it uses very little to make your imagination run riot thinking of things only suggested, very lightly and superficially. Like aikido, where a deft movement, almost effortless, can bring an assailant down.
But the affair was only a brief, all-consuming passion which Effie herself managed to end. They leave the place and reside in Berlin, away from Crampas whom she didn't even love.
Six years pass by.
Effie Briest is now about 24 years old. She still carries the guilt of her brief indiscretion. A major crime during those days. Her confused lamentation:
"And this guilt on my conscience...Yes, it's there--but is it a weight on my conscience? No, it's not and that's what makes me frightened about myself. The thing that weighs on me is something quite different--fear, a dreadful fear, the constant apprehension that one day it will all be discovered. And then, apart from the fear, there's the shame. I'm ashamed. But in the same way as I'm not properly repentant, so I'm not properly ashamed either. I'm ashamed only because of the constant lying and deception; it was always my boast that I couldn't lie and didn't need to, either; lying is so vile. And now I've had to lie all the time and in front of everybody, in small things as well as large ones...Yes, I'm really afraid and ashamed of all my lying. But I don't feel ashamed of being guilty, not really, or at any rate, not ashamed enough, and that is what's destroying me, because I'm not ashamed. If all women are like that, then it's horrible and if they aren't like that, which I hope is the case, then it's a bad thing for me, there's something wrong with my soul, I don't have the proper feelings. And old Niemeyer, when he was still in his prime, once said that to me when I was still not much more than a child: the important thing was to feel properly and if you could do that, the worst could never happen to anyone and if someone couldn't do that, then they'd always be in constant danger, and what people call the devil would always have you in his power. O merciful God, is that what has happened with me?"
By accident ('twas really by accident--the young child Annie hurt herself, their maids are looking for bandages, open a locked drawer in search for them, the Baron arrives, stumbles upon Crampas's old love notes to Effie and reads them) the affair is discovered.
The affair was six years ago and it was Effie herself who ended it. Despite the expressed misgivings of his friend, the Baron challenges Crampas to a duel. During those times, a duel had to be done under the circumstances.
The Baron's aforementioned friend himself acted as his second during the duel. It has to be done.
Crampas dies. As he lay dying, he tries to whisper something to the Baron. He said: "Will you..." But it wasn't finished. Those were his last words. (tip to the students: don't put this in your report. If your professor wants to test you with Crampas's last words to find out if you really read this, answer with some pretended uncertainly to make it very convincing: "Well, sir, this may have escaped me because this happened late in the novel, and I didn't find any significance in it, but if I'm not mistaken, Crampas whispered "Will you..." yet he didn't finished because he didn't have any more time to finish it. Your professor will be beaming with pride that at least one of his students reached page 221 of the book).
The duel, its reason, and Crampas's death are in the papers the following day.
Effie is banished from the conjugal dwelling. Custody of little Annie automatically goes to the Baron. Effie is barred from ever seeing her daughter. No court hearings or anything of that sort. Just by the click of a finger. Everyone understood these things have to be done.
Even Effie's parents could not welcome her back to her old home with them. Even they cannot go against "the implacable forces of Prussian rectitude" (blurb).
The novel does not end here. And I won't tell you, plagiarizing students, how it ends. Try your luck with the other reviews here. Now what if no one has written here the ending? And if your professor asks you this, as a trick question? Then do this: say it was the most poignant and tragic ending you've encountered in all your readings of literary classics (even if you've actually read not one of them) then BURST INTO TEARS. Cry nonstop until the class ends. You will escape the inquisition, guaranteed.
The original title in German was the same: Effie Briest. When it was translated into English the title was retained (names shouldn't be translated) so when I first got hold of a copy of this book last 12 February 2012 I thought "Effie Briest" was some kind of a German philosophical concept. It didn't sound like a person's name to me, unlike Madame Bovary. That could explain, too, why I didn't touch it for a long time. Philosophical works by Germans can give me a headache.
Maybe a better title would have been "Fraulein Briest" (with Umlauts--two dots--above the "a") and with that this novel would have been as famous as Madame Bovary. Not only would it be immediately understood that the novel is about a woman, but the title would have carried a hint of excitement (as "briest" looks the same as "breast") like that of Madame Bovary (bovine, a woman who follows man's every whim like she's a cattle).
But that didn't happen so enough of these little jokes. Let me tell you now the story so you don't have to read the book yourself.
I know for a fact that students of literature in our local colleges and universities (maybe happening also in other countries) would go to goodreads to get summaries of books assigned to them for reading or for reports. Let me tell you this clever dudes: your professor can also go to goodreads and compare your work with those reviews appearing here. So if you are smarter than him/her, don't plagiarize extensively verbatim. Get one short sentence from each review, then change words using a thesaurus. So even if your professor would strongly suspect that you didn't really read the book, at least he/she won't have the evidence to flunk you outright and recommend your expulsion.
Let's get on now with the story.
The setting is in Prussia (now a part of the country called Germany), 19th century, and right off the first few pages the author trusts before your eyes Effie Briest herself, an only child, just 17 years old, pretty, fresh, virginal, playing with her girlfriends, saying silly things 17-year-old girls say. Just a few pages more she'll be betrothed with her mother's former suitor, a guy named Baron Innstetten, 20 years her senior, moneyed, a high-ranking local official with bright prospects for further political advancement. A good catch. But this is NOT the usual melodrama one sees in TV soap operas where a young girl is forced into marriage with a rich dirty old man by her parents for money even if she's in love with another guy her age. No. Effie Briest readily consents to it and even if she is asked, one time, if she would rather marry her Cousin Briest of which she had shown fondness of she said of course not, SHE prefers the more mature and dependable Baron.
With the childlike, playful and adventurous Effie Briest vividly painted in your mind, you can already feel a disaster is bound to happen. And don't ask how this can even be possible because as I've told you, this is 19th century Prussia. The way they were. The author taking you back in time, when what a 17-year-old girl looks forward to was not going to college but marrying someone her parents had picked for her as a suitable partner for life.
So they got married. Effie immediately has a baby girl. The Baron is away, busy with work, most of the time. You know how it is with guys nearing 50 with lots of work, worries and busy with their careers. So Effie is always alone in their conjugal abode with their housemaids, her dog, and she misses her own town, the people there, her parents, her playmates, then she feels and sees ghosts in the house at night alone in her bed. Somewhat like Madame Bovary with her husband-doctor, communing with the farm animals in their provincial place.
Now comes Crampas, friend to the Baron, a gambler, society man and lady-killer who detests his wife. Once Crampas enters the scene you (plagiarizing students) tell your professor that you started to read slowly. For the affair between Effie Briest and Crampas is only delicately HINTED. You'd know that they fuck in the woods, during Effie's innumerable walks (for exercise, she says) alone--or maybe sometimes with her dog Rollo watching humpings which he himself does with native bitches. You tell your professor this is why you consider this a great novel, and Theodor Fontane a great novelist: that it uses very little to make your imagination run riot thinking of things only suggested, very lightly and superficially. Like aikido, where a deft movement, almost effortless, can bring an assailant down.
But the affair was only a brief, all-consuming passion which Effie herself managed to end. They leave the place and reside in Berlin, away from Crampas whom she didn't even love.
Six years pass by.
Effie Briest is now about 24 years old. She still carries the guilt of her brief indiscretion. A major crime during those days. Her confused lamentation:
"And this guilt on my conscience...Yes, it's there--but is it a weight on my conscience? No, it's not and that's what makes me frightened about myself. The thing that weighs on me is something quite different--fear, a dreadful fear, the constant apprehension that one day it will all be discovered. And then, apart from the fear, there's the shame. I'm ashamed. But in the same way as I'm not properly repentant, so I'm not properly ashamed either. I'm ashamed only because of the constant lying and deception; it was always my boast that I couldn't lie and didn't need to, either; lying is so vile. And now I've had to lie all the time and in front of everybody, in small things as well as large ones...Yes, I'm really afraid and ashamed of all my lying. But I don't feel ashamed of being guilty, not really, or at any rate, not ashamed enough, and that is what's destroying me, because I'm not ashamed. If all women are like that, then it's horrible and if they aren't like that, which I hope is the case, then it's a bad thing for me, there's something wrong with my soul, I don't have the proper feelings. And old Niemeyer, when he was still in his prime, once said that to me when I was still not much more than a child: the important thing was to feel properly and if you could do that, the worst could never happen to anyone and if someone couldn't do that, then they'd always be in constant danger, and what people call the devil would always have you in his power. O merciful God, is that what has happened with me?"
By accident ('twas really by accident--the young child Annie hurt herself, their maids are looking for bandages, open a locked drawer in search for them, the Baron arrives, stumbles upon Crampas's old love notes to Effie and reads them) the affair is discovered.
The affair was six years ago and it was Effie herself who ended it. Despite the expressed misgivings of his friend, the Baron challenges Crampas to a duel. During those times, a duel had to be done under the circumstances.
The Baron's aforementioned friend himself acted as his second during the duel. It has to be done.
Crampas dies. As he lay dying, he tries to whisper something to the Baron. He said: "Will you..." But it wasn't finished. Those were his last words. (tip to the students: don't put this in your report. If your professor wants to test you with Crampas's last words to find out if you really read this, answer with some pretended uncertainly to make it very convincing: "Well, sir, this may have escaped me because this happened late in the novel, and I didn't find any significance in it, but if I'm not mistaken, Crampas whispered "Will you..." yet he didn't finished because he didn't have any more time to finish it. Your professor will be beaming with pride that at least one of his students reached page 221 of the book).
The duel, its reason, and Crampas's death are in the papers the following day.
Effie is banished from the conjugal dwelling. Custody of little Annie automatically goes to the Baron. Effie is barred from ever seeing her daughter. No court hearings or anything of that sort. Just by the click of a finger. Everyone understood these things have to be done.
Even Effie's parents could not welcome her back to her old home with them. Even they cannot go against "the implacable forces of Prussian rectitude" (blurb).
The novel does not end here. And I won't tell you, plagiarizing students, how it ends. Try your luck with the other reviews here. Now what if no one has written here the ending? And if your professor asks you this, as a trick question? Then do this: say it was the most poignant and tragic ending you've encountered in all your readings of literary classics (even if you've actually read not one of them) then BURST INTO TEARS. Cry nonstop until the class ends. You will escape the inquisition, guaranteed.
April 24, 2025
Es un 3.7. El boticario que se hizo escritor. Ese es Theodor Fontane y esta es la novela que es considerada una especie de Madame Bovary y Anna Karenina alemana (fue publicada en 1895, posterior a ambas). Pero quizás no lo es. Y digo esto porque pese a que el argumento central es la infidelidad de una mujer casada, en realidad la trama no gira en torno a ello. Y no lo hace por quizás un asunto moral, dada la "rigidez prusiana" de carácter del autor (autodescrito así), pero mucho más por el interesante juego literario que propone al respecto. No solazarse en los pormenores de la anécdota romántica o erótica y evadirla con elipsis bien logradas. Nunca se nos cuenta o se nos muestra nada y el grueso de la novela va sobre asuntos de la cotidianidad de la vida de una pareja burguesa en una pequeña ciudad alemana. Hay crítica desde esa visión del autor acerca del dinero y la sociedad, del intelectualoidismo del que huía (no tenía estudios, era boticario por herencia paterna) y en el que era reclamado. Pero sobre todo hay una intención de cuestionar los esquemas y convenciones sociales, como el tema del honor, tan crucial en siglos pasados y que ya empezaba a tambalearse en la entrada al siglo XX. Lo que hace Fontane es llevarnos hacia un lugar desde el que podemos analizar el comportamiento humano desde los condicionamientos sociales. Pero tampoco resuelve la encrucijada como nos lo imaginaríamos. Sí responde a su tiempo la resolución del drama, pero también responde a un fondo que conduce a un resquicio de humanidad (la compasión, el perdón). Y la culpa. O la ausencia de ella. Y aquello que se hace por honor (como los duelos de caballeros), que termina siendo algo hecho "no por pasión, lo cual sería disculpable, sino por ideas". Este es el realismo alemán de Fontane. Pero también, dentro de su estilo algo parco aunque también con cierto humor y levedad (incluso hay un momento en el que la deriva dramática nos lleva hacia una narración de terror a lo Henry James que luego es ingeniosamente virada) hay algo poético. "La poesía cae sobre mí como una fina lluvia", decía en una de sus cartas. Y es que Fontane no se consideraba un gran escritor; como diría Thomas Mann, cuya novela Los Buddenbrook bebe mucho de esta obra, "la humildad de Fontaine tenía raíces más profundas que sólo lo social. Fue producto de aquel escepticismo artístico dirigido contra el arte y todo el gremio de artistas (...). Él sentía la sospecha que recaía sobre los artistas, ese cruce entre Lucifer y payaso, y a excepción de él, casi nadie más la sentía".
June 18, 2019
Effi Briest è una figura femminile indimenticabile. Viene data in sposa sedicenne al barone von Instetten, un uomo molto più anziano di lei, che la considera una creatura deliziosa da educare. Freddo e rigido, non comprende la sete di affetto né tantomeno il desiderio della giovane moglie di far funzionare il matrimonio.
La distanza tra Effi e il marito spinge la giovane tra le braccia di un don Giovanni di provincia.
L’adulterio non viene descritto. Il lettore lo scopre insieme Instetten anni dopo, per caso.
Da qui il romanzo ha una svolta e il mondo di Effi crolla. Viene ripudiata dal marito, non per desiderio di vendetta o per incapacità di perdonare, bensì in nome dei princìpi e dell’ipocrisia di una società gretta e perbenista, come spiega lo stesso Instetten in un memorabile scambio con un amico a cui chiede di fargli da padrino.
Stritolata dalle convenzioni, Effi espia una colpa indotta dal caso e dalla solitudine. Non tradisce per amore e il tradimento le pesa come un macigno prima ancora che il marito lo scopra.
Theodor Fontane con la sua prosa scorrevole ed elegante ci regala il ritratto/condanna della società del suo tempo attraverso l’approfondimento psicologico di personaggi quanto mai reali, descritti minuziosamente e senza sconti.
La distanza tra Effi e il marito spinge la giovane tra le braccia di un don Giovanni di provincia.
L’adulterio non viene descritto. Il lettore lo scopre insieme Instetten anni dopo, per caso.
Da qui il romanzo ha una svolta e il mondo di Effi crolla. Viene ripudiata dal marito, non per desiderio di vendetta o per incapacità di perdonare, bensì in nome dei princìpi e dell’ipocrisia di una società gretta e perbenista, come spiega lo stesso Instetten in un memorabile scambio con un amico a cui chiede di fargli da padrino.
Stritolata dalle convenzioni, Effi espia una colpa indotta dal caso e dalla solitudine. Non tradisce per amore e il tradimento le pesa come un macigno prima ancora che il marito lo scopra.
Theodor Fontane con la sua prosa scorrevole ed elegante ci regala il ritratto/condanna della società del suo tempo attraverso l’approfondimento psicologico di personaggi quanto mai reali, descritti minuziosamente e senza sconti.
December 10, 2023
Jedno od onih remek-dela za koje, najverovatnije, niste čuli — „Efi Brist" je ne samo blistav psihološki portret, nego i oštar podsetnik na to kako trijumf forme nad sadržinom može doslovce oduzimati živote.
August 10, 2008
Effi Briest ist die überaus ereignislose Geschichte eines kleinadligen Zuckerpüppchens mit einer Neigung zu Einbildung und Hypochondrie.
Immer, wenn scheinbar tatsächlich etwas geschieht, blendet der Autor ab, sodass die schöne heile Welt des Adelssprössleins unangetastet bleibt, in der sogar die pseudo-bedeutsamen Probleme idealisiert sind.
Ein Buch, das auf bewundernswerte Art die Denkweise der "Oberen Zehntausend", von Monarchisten, Neoliberalen und Sozialkonservativen offenlegt - aber leider an der unerträglichen Weltfremdheit der Hauptfigur, einer Frau, die ihr Leben lang nie über den Bewusstseinsstatus einer 13-jährigen hinauskommt, und der entsprechenden Kritiklosigkeit gegen das erzkonservative Bismarck-Deutschland krepiert.
Der Geist dieses Ultranationalisten und Erzmonarchisten durchdringt das gesamte Werk, sodass sich einige Zitate anbieten, die den Inhalt von "Effi Briest" angemessen zusammenfassen:
"Die Freiheit ist ein Luxus, den sich nicht jedermann gestatten kann",
erklärte Bismarck. Genau nach diesem Schema verhält sich Effi Briest: Freiheit? Ein Gedanke, der gar nicht erst aufkommt. Unterwerfung unter die Zwänge - eingebildete oder doch zumindest akzeptierte - ist das oberste Gebot und zeigt so ein Paradebeispiel preußischer Prinzipienreiterei.
"Für die Sicherheit und Fortbildung des Staates ist das Übergewicht derer, die den Besitz vertreten, das nützlichere."
Und auch das sei nicht vergessen: Hier geht es um die Oberschicht; Militär, Landadel und Geldaristokratie, alles andere ist so unbedeutend, dass man es nicht einmal erwähnt. Sozialisten kommen nur in den Fußnoten als Ärgernis Bismarck's vor und Ausländer allerhöchstens, weil man ihnen nicht trauen kann.
Auch die Sprache ist betont elaboriert, man wirft mit preußisch verballhornten Gallizismen und sonnt sich in der Nichtssagendheit blasierter Ausdrucksweisen.
Ein Handbuch zur Unfreiheit und geistigen Beschränkung einer verlorenen Adelsgesellschaft, die zwei Jahrzehnte nach dem ersten Erscheinen dieser Dokumentation von einem Krieg, in den sie sich mit ihrer Realitätsverleugnung und preußischer Militärverherrlichung selbst hineinmanövrierte, hinweggefegt wurde.
Immer, wenn scheinbar tatsächlich etwas geschieht, blendet der Autor ab, sodass die schöne heile Welt des Adelssprössleins unangetastet bleibt, in der sogar die pseudo-bedeutsamen Probleme idealisiert sind.
Ein Buch, das auf bewundernswerte Art die Denkweise der "Oberen Zehntausend", von Monarchisten, Neoliberalen und Sozialkonservativen offenlegt - aber leider an der unerträglichen Weltfremdheit der Hauptfigur, einer Frau, die ihr Leben lang nie über den Bewusstseinsstatus einer 13-jährigen hinauskommt, und der entsprechenden Kritiklosigkeit gegen das erzkonservative Bismarck-Deutschland krepiert.
Der Geist dieses Ultranationalisten und Erzmonarchisten durchdringt das gesamte Werk, sodass sich einige Zitate anbieten, die den Inhalt von "Effi Briest" angemessen zusammenfassen:
"Die Freiheit ist ein Luxus, den sich nicht jedermann gestatten kann",
erklärte Bismarck. Genau nach diesem Schema verhält sich Effi Briest: Freiheit? Ein Gedanke, der gar nicht erst aufkommt. Unterwerfung unter die Zwänge - eingebildete oder doch zumindest akzeptierte - ist das oberste Gebot und zeigt so ein Paradebeispiel preußischer Prinzipienreiterei.
"Für die Sicherheit und Fortbildung des Staates ist das Übergewicht derer, die den Besitz vertreten, das nützlichere."
Und auch das sei nicht vergessen: Hier geht es um die Oberschicht; Militär, Landadel und Geldaristokratie, alles andere ist so unbedeutend, dass man es nicht einmal erwähnt. Sozialisten kommen nur in den Fußnoten als Ärgernis Bismarck's vor und Ausländer allerhöchstens, weil man ihnen nicht trauen kann.
Auch die Sprache ist betont elaboriert, man wirft mit preußisch verballhornten Gallizismen und sonnt sich in der Nichtssagendheit blasierter Ausdrucksweisen.
Ein Handbuch zur Unfreiheit und geistigen Beschränkung einer verlorenen Adelsgesellschaft, die zwei Jahrzehnte nach dem ersten Erscheinen dieser Dokumentation von einem Krieg, in den sie sich mit ihrer Realitätsverleugnung und preußischer Militärverherrlichung selbst hineinmanövrierte, hinweggefegt wurde.
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