Effi Briest

In 1919 Thomas Mann hailed Effi Briest (1895) as one of "the six most significant novels ever written." Set in Bismarck's Germany, Fontane's luminous tale of a socially suitable but emotionally disastrous match between the enchanting seventeen-year-old Effi and an austere, workaholic civil servant twice her age, is at once touching and unsettling. Fontane's taut, ironic narrative depicts a world where sexuality and the enjoyment of life are stifled by narrow-mindedness and circumstance. Considered by many to be the pinnacle of the nineteenth-century German novel, Effi Briest is a tale of adultery that ranks with Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina and brilliantly demonstrates the truth of the author's comment and "women's stories are generally far more interesting."

台奥多尔·冯塔纳(1819-1898)是德国批判现实主义作家，出生于一个药商家庭，早年在柏林、来比锡等地药店里工作，从1850年起以写作为职业。1861-1882年发表的《勃兰登堡漫游记》，主要是描写勃兰登堡的贵族生活和风土人情。他的作品很多，其中有长短篇小说和自传。1878年发表的长篇历史小说《暴风雨前》是他的批判现实主义道路的开端，后来的《沙赫·封·乌特诺夫》(1883)和《艾菲·布里斯特》(1895)批判封建贵族；《燕妮·特赖贝尔夫人》(1892)批判资产阶级。他特别憎恶贵族统治阶级和资产阶级暴发户，同情不合理制度下的牺牲者，歌颂来自平民阶层的人物的善良行为。