Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane (some spoilers)

[Lincolnshirelass]

Though this book was originally written in German I know it has been translated into English. It has been called the 'German Madame Bovary' but I think that's over-simplistic - I love both books, but apart from an adulterous heroine in a 'respectable' society they are quite different. Effi is a very vulnerable and believable character, and the tragedy is that she faces the results of her affair when it is discovered long after it is over in being separated from her beloved child. It is harrowing when she is briefly reunited with her daughter and in reply to all her questions the child simply replies like a clockwork doll 'Yes, for sure, if I may'. Her (Effi's) death is also less openly dramatic and harrowing but moving nonetheless, and her husband, if not exactly presented in a sympathetic light is not a monster. Fontane had a great understanding of women which comes through in most of his books, and has some echoes of Thomas Hardy. Interestingly at one point in the 19th century he was foreign correspondent for a Berlin Newspaper in Berlin