L'Adultera

The Berlin writer Theodor Fontane (1819-1898) earned a European reputation for the German novel, something his fellow poetic realists and their predecessors had failed to do. L'Adultera (1882), a Gesellschaftsroman, is the first of the writer's Berlin novels. Already in this early work, Fontane employs his considerable skills as a realist and impartial observer of nineteenth-century German life. Lynn R. Eliason captures in this major translation the wit, irony and warm human interaction characteristic of Fontane's mature novels, including his well known Effi Briest. An introductory essay identifies L'Adultera in terms of the writer's life and literary artistry.