tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3690077250072100801.post3157813422249859068..comments2024-02-26T11:04:22.115+13:00Comments on Reid's Reader – A Blog of Book Reviews and Comment.: Something OldNicholas Reidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05497366104216216952noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3690077250072100801.post-48215981314943874152017-09-06T16:20:40.559+12:002017-09-06T16:20:40.559+12:00I stand rebuked. Thank you for your informed comme...I stand rebuked. Thank you for your informed comment here. Perhaps I should have said that they are the only two English-language translations of Fontane that it it EASY to find.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3690077250072100801.post-956475271992203912017-08-28T10:15:51.676+12:002017-08-28T10:15:51.676+12:00I read this a few years ago, also having read and ...I read this a few years ago, also having read and enjoyed Effi Briest. Like you, I found it a bit dull. Yet it's stuck obstinately in my memory, partly because the ideological construction of the thing is so precise (whatever one's reservations about the attitudes being expressed). But also, after the long, slow, leisurely buildup, I found the violent climax really quite shocking! The scene of Lewin in prison, awaiting what he assumes will be his execution, came across with real intensity; Fontane conveys admirably just how much you want to be alive when you are young! And Tubal's fatal wounding trying to save the dog is a haunting touch of irony. Another masterstroke of irony is the fact that the secularised, rationalist aunt dies because of superstitious fear - not only does Fontane dramatise, as you suggest, the collapse of French-influenced Enlightenment culture in the face of Prussian Calvinist piety, but he also implies that the Enlightenment didn't really believe in its own values.<br /><br />Oddly, I think about this book far more often than many books I enjoyed reading more!<br /><br />By the way, one correction - this is certainly not the only other Fontane novel readily available in English. No Way Back, On Tangled Paths and Two Novellas (The Poggenpuhls Family and The Women Taken in Adultery) are all in print in Penguin; I have read the first two, and both are much closer in spirit and standard to Effi Briest; the former, in particular, is close to being a masterpiece. Cecile and The Stechlin are in print from other publishers. One or two others can still be found second-hand. Fontane is far from a one-book wonder, even in translation. He was a major writer.Alexanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15509240762241075632noreply@blogger.com