Reading Order
Effi Briest Reading Order
Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest (1895) is a standalone novel — there is no series and no sequel. Effi von Briest, a seventeen-year-old girl, is married to a much older Prussian official, falls into a brief affair, and is destroyed by the social consequences years after the affair has ended. One of the greatest German novels and the masterwork of German literary realism.
Where to start
Effi Briest
Complete Effi Briest Book List
- 1Buy
Effi Briest
Theodor Fontane·1895·Standalone novel — Effi von Briest, Baron von Innstetten, and Major Crampas in the Prussian provinces; approximately 280 pages; Fontane's last major novel and the culmination of his career; based on a real scandal of the 1880s; Thomas Mann called it one of the six greatest novels ever written, alongside Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and others
Effi Briest — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Effi Briest similar to Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary?
Yes — Effi Briest is explicitly in the same tradition as Anna Karenina (1877) and Madame Bovary (1857), and is regularly discussed alongside them as one of the three great nineteenth-century novels about a married woman destroyed by an adulterous affair. The three novels were written within forty years of each other: Flaubert published Madame Bovary in 1857, Tolstoy published Anna Karenina in 1877, and Fontane published Effi Briest in 1895. Each draws on the same basic situation (a woman trapped in a loveless marriage who enters an affair and is destroyed by the social consequences) but handles it with radically different emphases: Flaubert is ironic and devastating, Tolstoy is morally comprehensive, and Fontane is elegiac and tender toward his protagonist in a way that neither Flaubert nor Tolstoy quite achieves.
How does Effi Briest end?
Effi Briest ends with Effi's death from a combination of illness and grief at her parents' estate — the estate she left as a girl to marry Baron von Innstetten and to which she returns after her disgrace. After the affair is discovered (years after it ended), Innstetten feels obliged by social convention to challenge Major Crampas to a duel and kill him, and to divorce Effi and take their daughter from her. Effi spends years in poverty and social isolation in Berlin before her health fails and her parents agree to take her back. She dies in the house where she was born, and the novel ends with her father's question: 'Is this our fault?' — without answering it.
Is Effi Briest available in English?
Yes — Effi Briest has several good English translations. The most widely available is Hugh Rorrison and Helen Chambers's 1995 translation for Penguin Classics; Douglas Parmée's 1967 Penguin translation is also good and widely available secondhand. The novel is fully in print and accessible. Fontane's prose is elegant and precise without being difficult, and the novel reads cleanly in translation; readers who enjoy Madame Bovary or Anna Karenina will find Effi Briest immediately legible and emotionally devastating.
Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.