{"id":3281,"date":"2017-06-19T19:46:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T14:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fableandi.com\/?p=3281"},"modified":"2020-04-04T19:46:55","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T14:16:55","slug":"effi-briest-theodor-fontane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebooksatchel.com\/effi-briest-theodor-fontane\/","title":{"rendered":"Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane – A Child Bride and her Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"
Effi Briest<\/em> by Theodor Fontane is translated from the German by Walter Wallich and follows a young girl who gets married to a much older man and she tries to be happy in the marriage.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As the novel opens up we see our lively, bubbly seventeen year old heroine, the eponymous Effi, playing with her friends. She is telling them the story of an old suitor of her mother\u2019s who was turned down as he was not rich enough (nor in a highly respectable post). When she gets home she is given the news that the same suitor is now a civil servant in a prominent position and has asked her hand in marriage. Effi agrees to marry the middle aged Instetten and she justifies her decision to her friends who worry whether she is making a wrong one saying, \u201cYou don\u2019t understand, Hertha. Every man\u2019s the right one. Of course he has to belong to the nobility, have a position and be presentable\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, the child-bride is extremely bored even before the actual marriage ceremony. Instetten\u2019s letters give her information, not love. The honeymoon trip is spent in museums that Effi has no interest in but something she gladly obliges. Their new house on the Baltic coast, has a haunted vibe, which scares the new bride. Soon she bears a child, but it does not seem to improve the situation in any way. Her new friendship with a dashing but cynical womanizer, Major Crampas, becomes something more than that. She desperately tries to have a fresh start by reclaiming her marriage, but fails in the process.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nReview<\/h3>\n