Effi Briest: Theodor Fontane (Pushkin Press Classics) - Softcover

Fontane, Theodor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1805331590 ISBN 13: 9781805331599

Publisher: Pushkin Press Classics, 2024

Synopsis

'Stunningly moving, beautiful, witty and urbane' Kate Saunders

Effi Briest is only seventeen when she is married off to Baron von Instetten, travelling to live with him in a provincial town on the remote Baltic coast of Prussia. He is twenty years her senior, an ambitious bureaucrat who is uninterested in his young wife, and lively Effi becomes increasingly isolated, bored and anxious in her stifling surroundings. A half-hearted affair with Major Crampas - a manipulative married man with a reputation for womanising - temporarily distracts Effi from her loneliness. But years later, this brief liaison will return to Effi with devastating consequences.

In this witty masterpiece of poetic realism, Fontane portrays a woman torn between her own desires and her roles as wife and mother, between her heart and the obligations of social circumstance.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Hugh Rorrison and Helen Chambers.

Theodor Fontane (1819-98) was a German novelist and political reporter. He began writing novels - now his best-known works - at the age of 57. Fontane once said that 'women's stories are generally far more interesting', and the story of Effi Briest (1895), is considered his masterpiece.

Hugh Rorrison and Helen Chambers have translated multiple works by Theodor Fontane together. Separately, they have translated and authored works by and about Bertolt Brecht, Joseph Roth and other giants of German literature.

About this title

About the Author

THEODOR FONTANE (1819-98) was born in a Prussian town much like that depicted in Effi Briest. He worked for most of his life as a journalist, and spent many years in London as a foreign correspondent for the Prussian intelligence agency. He began writing novels at the age of fifty-seven, and these works earned him an enduring reputation in German letters. Several of his realist masterpieces are published or forthcoming from Pushkin Press, including No Way Back and On Tangled Paths. HUGH RORRISON and HELEN CHAMBERS have translated multiple works by Theodor Fontane together. Separately, they have translated and authored works by and about Bertolt Brecht, Joseph Roth and other giants of German literature.

From the Back Cover

An exceptional translation of Fontane's masterpiece: one of the great 19th-century novels of adultery to stand beside Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary.

In this witty masterpiece of poetic realism, expertly translated by Hugh Rorrison, Effi Briest shows Theodor Fontane at the height of his talents, as he questions the hypocrisies and destructive values of middle-class society.
Effi Briest is only seventeen when she is married off to Baron von Innstetten, travelling to live with him in a provincial town on the remote Baltic coast of Prussia. He is twenty years her senior, an ambitious bureaucrat who is uninterested in his young wife, and lively Effi becomes increasingly isolated, bored and anxious in her stifling surroundings.
A half-hearted affair with Major Crampas - a manipulative married man with a reputation for womanising - temporarily distracts Effi from her loneliness. But years later, this brief liaison will return to Effi with devastating consequences.

Written with great empathy for his characters, Fontane portrays a woman torn between her own desires and her roles as wife and mother, between her heart and the obligations of social circumstance.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: outstanding classic storytelling from around the world, in a stylishly original series design. From newly rediscovered gems to fresh translations of the world's greatest authors, this series includes such authors as Stefan Zweig, Hermann Hesse, Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Gaito Gazdanov.

"A stunningly moving, beautiful, witty and urbane novel: I was blown away by it" - Kate Saunders, author of The Secrets of Wishtide

Edition details

• Publisher: Pushkin Press Classics
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1805331590
• ISBN 13: 9781805331599
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368