Effi Briest

About

The dreams of 17-year-old Effi von Briest seem to come true when the successful and wealthy Baron von Instetten, 21 years her senior, proposes to her. But already on the honeymoon the dream begins to crumble. Arriving at the now common property in rural Kessin, everyday life and endless boredom move into the big house with Effi. One day, a former regimental comrade of Instetten, Major von Crampas, comes to visit. The cheerful gentleman known as "Ladies' Man" gives Effi the attention she lacks. In search of a change, Effi surrenders to Crampas' advances. This not only endangers her marriage... It is the discrepancy between social expectations and one's own needs that Theodor Fontane deals with in the novel published in 1896 and which ultimately causes his protagonist to fail bitterly.