Two Novellas
1996
First Published
3.38
Average Rating
231
Number of Pages
Fontane's novella The Woman Taken in Adultery (1882) is remarkable not least for its portrayal, in wealthy, stultifying Berlin society in the 1880s, of an adultery with a happy ending. The story was inspired by a celebrated contemporary scandal and tells of Melanie van der Straaten and her affair with Rubehn, the young protege of Melanie's eccentric and good-humoured husband Ezel. By contrast The Poggenpuhl Family (1896), a late masterpiece, centres on a birthday party given for Frau von Poggenpuhl and brilliantly evokes the lives of an aristocratic Berlin family struggling in genteel poverty. Theodor Fontane is one of nineteenth-century Germany's foremost stylists, and in these two short fictions his vivid portraiture and unforced dialogue, his mastery of understatement and emotional nuance are found to perfection.
Avg Rating
3.38
Number of Ratings
13
5 STARS
8%
4 STARS
38%
3 STARS
38%
2 STARS
15%
1 STARS
0%
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