A review by foggy_rosamund
Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane

4.0

At 17, Effi marries the Baron von Innstetten, a man so many years her senior that he was once romantically interested in her mother. Intelligent and full of life, Effi struggles to find comfort in the tiny seaside town of Kessin where the Baron bring her. She believes the house to be haunted, and the Baron offers her no comfort. Starved of companionship, she develops an affection for von Crampas, one of the few people she can talk to in the small Prussian town. Then things dramatically improve as Effi and von Innstetten move to Berlin and set up a home there. All seems well, and six years pass, until the story comes to a devastating conclusion. Though at times melodramatic and silly, I appreciated the atmosphere of the book, and Fontane captures Effi's struggles and her isolation with sympathy and care. Structurally, I'm not sure this book entirely holds together, but it's very gripping.