Effi Briest (German Edition)

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: Get one short sentence from each review, then change words using a thesaurus. 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 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. 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.

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 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.

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.

Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane

You tell your professor this is why you consider this a great novel, and Theodor Fontane a great novelist: 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.

Effi Briest

Effie Briest is now about 24 years old. She still carries the guilt of her brief indiscretion. A major crime during those days. 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. 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.

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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: O merciful God, is that what has happened with me? 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. As he lay dying, he tries to whisper something to the Baron.

Those were his last words. 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: Your professor will be beaming with pride that at least one of his students reached page 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? Cry nonstop until the class ends. You will escape the inquisition, guaranteed. View all 9 comments. And indeed, Thomas Mann himself always did consider Theodor Fontane and his oeuvre, but especially Effi Briest , a major literary influence so much so that it is now pretty well taken as a given that even the name of the family described in Buddenbrooks , that the name Buddenbrooks itself, was actually taken from a family name first encountered by Mann in Fontane's Effi Briest.

Now many critics seem both happy and even rather eager to simply lump Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest together with Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary and to claim that Effi Briest is like the former also and primarily basically just a novel of adultery, an account of a woman behaving very very badly although it is true that in both novels, Emma and Effi are in fact and indeed also shown as both being victims. Now while Emma Bovary might in fact and actually indeed be somewhat portrayed by Flaubert as a victim of society as well, of the dictates of society, she also does very much and in my opinion deliberately and actively create her own victims, and her willful suicide by arsenic leaves a husband who still seems to very much love her despite everything, in abject agony.

But Effi Briest, she is always pretty much simply featured by Fontaine as a sad victim, naive, a bit spoiled, not highly educated, perhaps, but first and foremost, an innocent child, someone who is married off as a teenager and by her own parents to Baron von Instetten and really ONLY for societal reasons it is very clearly and I think always demonstrated by the author that Baron von Instetten does not in any way truly love or in any ways attempt to understand his young wife and sees Effi primarily as a marriage trophy, as a means for making his status in society more glowing and shining.

Effi Briest (german Edition) by Fontane

And although Effi should perhaps should likely not have allowed herself to be seduced by Major von Crampas, it is he who actually and deliberately engages in the act of seduction in the first place, it is he who is the original mover and shaker, the person who with knowledge of what he is doing, what he is engaging in, starts the proverbial ball rolling to its sad and tragic conclusions with both his death and later Effi's death as the result.

And finally, although I have always considered Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest to be both thematically and stylistically superb I love the back and forth of different modes of expression, from plain objectiveness to subjective speculation, from simple description to detailed analyses, from personal emotional attachment to impersonal detachment , the novel has also never really been a story that I could and would in any way label a personal favourite simply because I actually rather vehemently and personally despise so many of the featured, the presented characters especially, Effi's parents, who both marry off their daughter to the highest bidder, but disgustingly and worrisomely to the mother's former beau at that, and then refuse to see their daughter for almost three years after the scandal, after Effi's affair with von Crampas has become public knowledge, only relenting when it is clear that she is close to death.

And yes, with Effi's parents in particular, I generally do seem to see the proverbial red, and while the mother at least is willing to entertain the consideration of at least some culpability on her part, the father never does, never can, considering his and his wife's possible and probable roles in the tragedy "ein zu weites Feld" too far a field. Therefore, while Effi Briest is indeed and in fact deservedly a classic and a brilliant literary achievement and a novel I have always much appreciated for its art, for its literary merit and value , the themes presented and the fact that most of the characters featured are majorly dysfunctional leave me livid and disgusted that a rather fleeting and in many ways rather insignificant small affair of the heart between Major von Crampas and Effi, that was in fact for all intents and purposes really precipitated by Baron von Instetten ignoring and denigrating his young wife, often leaving her feeling abandoned due to his societal "obligations" due to his career and his constant travels and absences, that this ends up destroying Effi, von Crampas and in many ways also von Instetten, and all because of so-called honour and glory.

Three and a half stars for Effi Briest and while I do highly recommend the novel, I must nevertheless leave the caveat that I for one have not all that much enjoyed continuously reading about such problematic and dysfunctional characters and the "honour" system of Prussian nobility that basically devours and kills, that basically just makes and leaves hapless victims all around. And furthermore, just to say, that I have only read Effi Briest in German and thus do not feel that I can in any way make any comments as to the quality of potential English language translations but there do seem to be quite a few.

View all 6 comments. Der Geist dieses Ultranationalisten und Erzmonarchisten durchdringt das gesamte Werk, sodass sich einige Zitate anbieten, die den Inhalt von "Effi Briest" angemessen zusammenfassen: Ein Gedanke, der gar nicht erst aufkommt. Prezioso come la scrittura di Flaubert. Accompagnato ad un saporito arrosto di carni.

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. View all 3 comments. Mar 30, Issicratea rated it it was amazing Shelves: I had been meaning to read this novel for ages, but, when I did, I read it in a completely inappropriate manner, gobbling it down in one sitting on a long-distance flight in the manner of a Dan Brown.

I went back at the end and reread the first chapter, saturated in hints and prefigurings, and I decided I should probably read the whole thing again. One great ple I had been meaning to read this novel for ages, but, when I did, I read it in a completely inappropriate manner, gobbling it down in one sitting on a long-distance flight in the manner of a Dan Brown.

If you have read the other two, you should certainly read this, if only for the pleasures of comparison. I can see why academics love Fontane. The introduction to the edition I read by Helen Chambers, in Penguin Classics describes Effi as a delightful, life-force-filled creature, and her older husband Instetten as a dry, oppressive, sexless, almost Casaubon-like figure, who attempts to control her. For one thing, Instetten seems as much of a victim as Effi is. For another, I found Instetten a curiously evasive character, hard to pin down.

Protomodernist ambiguity aside, I found Effi Briest fascinating not least for its setting. There are scenes in Berlin, but the dominant part of the novel is set in Kessin, on the Baltic coast in Pomerania, on the outermost fringes of Prussia.

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Kessin is intriguingly portrayed, as a town of drifters, on the edge of the known universe—surreal and out of kilter in all kinds of ways. When Effi arrives at her marital home, she is disconcerted to see a stuffed shark and a crocodile swinging above her head in the hall, a detail that seems to set the tone for her life there. This is familiar nineteenth-century novel territory—brutal class distinctions, brittle family relationships—but given a peculiar spin by its unfamiliar setting.

May 28, Seth rated it it was amazing Shelves: Effie Briest, which I read a few years ago, is Theodor Fontane's most popular novel. We meet the protagonist as an intelligent, exuberant, and privileged child growing up on an estate outside Berlin during the Wilhelmine era. The novel is about Effie's arranged marriage at the tender age of 17 to an ambitious provincial bureaucrat, who is old enough to be her father. When Baron Geert von Innstetten, a minor protege of Bismarck, asks Effie's parents for her hand in marriage, her mother presents he Effie Briest, which I read a few years ago, is Theodor Fontane's most popular novel.

When Baron Geert von Innstetten, a minor protege of Bismarck, asks Effie's parents for her hand in marriage, her mother presents her still flushed and sweating from playing outside with her friends--a mere child. It is a marriage of convenience and expediency, not one remotely based on love. Effie would like to secure her place in society and Geert would like a young, attractive wife to bear children and advance his career.

Effie hopes that she will eventually come to love her husband. But in both cases, the women made a deliberate sacrifice for their families. Geert possesses all the power in the relationship. To make matters worse, he views his role as that of Erzieher, which is the German word for an adult whose function is to raise and educate children. Even on their honeymoon to Italy, culture hound Geert drags Effie from one Roman ruin to another, whereas Effie probably would have preferred to enjoy the scenery. Her father recognizes the dilemma.

Geert regards the trip as an educational trip Bildungsreise , whereas Effie is a nature lover Naturmensch. The more fundamental contrast is that Geert is a man of principle and Effie is a woman of passion, sensitivity, and spontaneity. The novel is about how this marriage between unequal and different personalities plays out. It is also about the place of women--even wealthy and privileged women--in a regimented Prussian society in an age when modern business and government structures were beginning to form, but social freedoms lagged behind.

It was a time of material progress, but not necessarily social progress. View all 8 comments. May 22, Laura rated it really liked it Shelves: Free download available at Project Gutenberg. In front of the old manor house occupied by the von Briest family since the days of Elector George William, the bright sunshine was pouring down upon the village road, at the quiet hour of noon. The wing of the mansion looking toward the garden and park cast its broad shadow over a white and green checkered tile walk and extended out over a large round bed, with a sundial in its centre and a border of Indian shot and rhubarb.

Some twenty Free download available at Project Gutenberg. Some twenty paces further, and parallel to the wing of the house, there ran a churchyard wall, entirely covered with a small-leaved ivy, except at the place where an opening had been made for a little white iron gate. Five movies have been made based on this book. Thanks Philippe for this tip. View all 19 comments. Ci sono, tuttavia, delle differenze rispetto agli altri due libri. Quest'opera presenta una struttura narrativa amplificata che, in sole pagine, percorre un tempo di circa quattordici anni se non vado errato con i conti.

Costretta dai suoi buoni sentimenti a sposare il barone von Innstetten, di 38 anni, a soli 16 anni, Effi si ritrova catapultata in un mondo di adulti fin troppo presto. E' un personaggio caratterizzato da due facce di una stessa medaglia, pertanto ambigua: Tutto in superficie, naturalmente: Un flirt breve, ma intenso. A questa caratteristica si ha da unirsi anche un uso, non poco raffinato, di descrizioni filo-impressioniste. Che sia a Kessin, a Berlino, a Hohen-Cremmen, il romanzo spesso da spunti di piacere immaginativo, rendendolo anche meno "pesante" in alcuni punti.

Apr 01, Ms. The book was translated into English with the same title: Effi Briest Effi is a spoiled year-old whose parents decide to marry her off to a man older than her own father , all for the sake of the girl's future well-being. As if the future husband's age weren't enough of a deterrent, it is revealed early on, that von Innstetten the husband-to-be used to court Effi's mother before she got married. But then compared to the possibility of Effi becomming a well-off lady in her 20s In short, things get worse right from the get go, all culminating with view spoiler [a duel, death, divorce, loss of status and Now don't get me wrong, I don't condone adultery, but death as just punishment seems quite an exaggeration.

Guess the era doesn't agree with me. I only read this book to refresh my German skills. However, if anyone else is harboring similar thoughts, just DON'T! It's HELL to get through, chock full of lengthy descriptions which had me look up every second word in the dictionary. I have never been so glad to own a Kindle. Not sure, if it was my extremely rusty German, or if the descriptions were meant to test my patience. Suffice to say, I've just about had enough of haunted houses. Reviewing classics is an extremely daunting task, and I was always crap at literary analysis.

I can think of few books, that I've disliked this much, and those were ones for which I've had to write literary analysis. A beautifully written sad story of young Effi. She marries a man much older than herself and finds herself in a remote provincial town on the Baltic.

Then comes Grampus a womanising officer who brightens up her days. I love the Newfoundland dog called Rollo who plays an important part in the story.

There are consequences years later with a tragic outcome. I loved it especially the stunning cover picture! The age difference, Instetten's dedication to his work and Effi's loneliness drives her into the arms of a womaniser. She desperately tries to save the marriage. She might come off as a girl with 17 yo Effi gets married to a much older Instetten, a former flame of her mother's who was turned down for a better match Effi's father by her mother and is now in a prominent position in government service. She might come off as a girl with a shallow mind, but actually she is just eager to have money, nice clothes and be a lady or rather play-a-lady before her friends.

She believes love is something that would take root after marriage to a man with good prospects. Throughout, the reader empathises with her because she is too much of a child to be a wife. Effi's first house has a eery and haunted vibe that complement her loneliness and fears. They did not blend well together. Full review at http: Much thanks to Persephone Books for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own. 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: 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. 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. Anna Maria Ballester Bohn This made me want to re-read it. I read it in school and liked it, but never since Dec 13, Der Kontakt zu Eltern und Tochter ist ihr untersagt, sie lebt alleine in Berlin. Nachdem es doch zu einem Wiedersehen mit ihrer Tochter kommt, stellt Effi fest, dass das Kind sich entfremdet hat und erleidet einen Nervenzusammenbruch. Auf Empfehlung des Arztes erlangt sie die Genehmigung ihrer Eltern wieder in Hohen-Cremmen, ihrem Elternhaus, aufgenommen zu werden und verbringt dort ihre letzten Lebensjahre bevor sie jung stirbt.

Stimmen wie "Das langweilste Buch, das ich je gelesen habe" oder "So langweilig, dass ich nicht eine Seite weiterlesen konnte" wurden laut. Ich kann dem jedoch nicht ganz zustimmen. Auch im historischen Kontext ist der Roman interessant, denn er verdeutlicht zwischen den Zeilen immer wieder, was letztendlich zum 1. Deshalb erstmal nur vier Sterene. I just realised I've never written a review for this. It's been more than 10 years since I had to read this for school but I still remember how I always compared Fontane's description of the old Prussian ways and the society with the worlds described by Tolstoy.

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Back then, I gave this 3 stars. Today, I'm going to give it 4 because now I appreciate the writing style much more because its melancholy that almost made me hate the book at times back then perfectly reflects Effi's world. The story is I just realised I've never written a review for this. The story is about the titular character, a young girl from a wealthy and well-named family who has to marry a much older nobleman.

He seems to be pleasant and marriages were made out of convenience anyway, but Effi is very young. We are being shown high society back in the day and then move on to Effi falling in love - but not with her husband. The two are so incredibly different and Effi suffers greatly from it, which leads to her seeking refuge in an affair. Usually, infidelity is a trigger for me and I don't sympathize with the ones having the affairs but I pitied Effi. The social consequences, her husband's treatment of her even before the affair, and her bloody parents were just too much.

Fontane wanted and, in my opinion, succeeded to show the clash between the old Prussian way with its social framework and norms and Effi as an individual who wants to break free from it all. My two favourite passages are 1 right at the beginning when Baron von Innstetten her future husband visits for the first time and is not only punctual but too early and Effi says A gentleman is never too late - but also never too early.

The first of these passages was beautifully done, the second made me madder than the Hatter and shows perfectly everything that is wrong with a society like old Prussia. All in all I'm glad our teacher made us read this German classic. Nemmeno l'amore, nemmeno il sesso. Part of my agenda this year is to read classic novels that have been forgotten, using several reviewers' lists. Her husband is away for weeks at a time, and Effi, who is shunned by local nobles, finds but one friend. Her suspicions that their house may be haunted are not entirely laid to rest by Innstetten.

When she says there may be a ghost, he derides her fears. The scorn he would bear if people knew of her terror would stall his career; hence his angry reply. When Major Crampas arrives, Effi cannot help relishing his attentions despite his being a married womaniser, and their love is consummated. Her husband looks down on Crampas, whom he finds a lewd philanderer with cavalier views of law.

Crampas views Innstetten as a patronising prig. He gets custody of Annie and influences her to disdain Effi. When Effi and Annie meet briefly some years later, it is clear the two are estranged, and Effi stops trying to establish a good relationship with Annie. The Briests disown Effi, thinking it ill behooves them to deal with someone who tarnished their name.

Innstetten tells Crampas he wants to duel; he agrees and is killed by Innstetten. But the halcyon days of Innstetten's past life are over, and career success fails to delight him. Effi's parents take her back when she becomes the victim of nervous disorder, depression. Facing death, she asks Luise to tell Innstetten about her regrets and willingness to forgive him. In the end scene, her parents vaguely concede guilt for her fate without daring to question the social canons that sparked the tragedy, citing the German maxim, "That would be too wide a field" ein weites Feld. The youngest of five children, Elisabeth was born in Zerben currently known as Elbe-Parey in She is said to have shown little interest in Ardenne; having rejected his first proposal, she changed her mind during the Franco-Prussian War , which left Ardenne injured.

They became engaged on 7 February and wed in Elisabeth and Hartwich had much in common including their love of theatre. Despite risk of discovery, they did not cease corresponding when the Ardennes went back to Berlin on 1 October Hartwich would come irregularly. During the summer of , which Hartwich spent in Berlin, he and Elisabeth chose to marry each other. He filed for divorce and dueled Hartwich on 27 November , drawing strong coverage.

Hartwich died from his injuries on 1 December. Ardenne was sentenced to two years in prison but his term was reduced to 18 days. His divorce on 15 March 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 , her daughter Margot was the first to try to find her; her son Egmont saw her in