Bookclub: "Effie Briest"
Presented by Dennis Drabelle
Washington Post Book World Editor
Monday, July 30, 2001; 2 p.m. EDT

Welcome to the online meeting of The Washington Post Book Club, a monthly program presented by the editors and writers of Washington Post Book World. Book World Editor Dennis Drabelle will be leading the discussion on this month's selection, Theodor Fontane's "Effie Briest."

The transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Dennis Drabelle: I have to introduce this chat by admitting that I made a blunder in my Book World discussion piece. Effi Briest is not the only Fontane title in print. Several others, including one of my favorites, A Man of Honor, are in print. The easiest way to see what is available is to check amazon.com. And for out of print titles, there is abebooks.com.

Washigton, D.C.: Was this book perhaps chosen as a foil to Updyke's "Brazil?" His book is so full of sexual encounters of all kinds that I don't remember the plot, if there was one. The high Victorian author Teodor Fontane, on the other hand, avoids dscriptions of sexual encounters altogether. I really wasn't sure that poor little Effi had actually been meeting Crampas until her love letters were turned up and left exposed by an inept servant. And even after all the various reactions to the discovery of Effi's pitifully brief love life, the reader is left wondering how much really went on during those brief woodland trysts.

Dennis Drabelle: We aren't quite organized enough here to choose books as foils to each other's selections, but the contrast is interesting, isn't it? I discussed the same novel at my own in-the-flesh book group about a month ago, and somebody mentioned that it isn't at all clear that Effi and Geert consummated their marriage on their honeymoon. The difference between Updike's oversexed approach and Fontane's abstemious one has a lot to do with the ages in which they wrote, but I don't think Fontane was merely reflecting Victorian prudery. He constantly relied on indirection and hints to move his plots along--it was a central part of his sensibility, I think.

Washington, D.C.: Has anyone else noticed the similarity between the story of Effi Briest to that of the narrator of an American story of the same era, "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman? Both young wives, German and American, are virtual prisoners of their very closed society, both are forced to live in houses they believe are haunted, and both die as a direct result of a bumbling doctor's ignorance of the real problem.

Dennis Drabelle: Interesting comparison. The timing is instructive, too--Gilman was writing in the late 19th century, too, if I'm not mistaken. I am tempted to bring Kate Chopin's The Awakening in here, too. Another story of adultery with a bleak ending (though there is no doctor involved this time). But the feeling of being hemmed in is certainly strong in both Fontane and Gilman.

Washington, D.C.: I thought the "haunted house" very peculiar, and I thought, too, that a man such as Effie's husband would laugh at such a queer place perhaps, but would never live there. Under a stuffed aligator? Hardly. Nor would a man in the diplomatic service live in a house where he could not entertain in style. I cannot reconcile that strange little house with the character of the man.

Dennis Drabelle: But wans't the house something that Geert was expected to live in--a property of the German embassy? The house in Berlin was something the couple chose (though it was mostly Effi's choice), but unless I'm mistaken the house in remote Prussia was provided for them. The haunted aspect, as well as the alligator, were Geert's doing, at least in the sense that he didn't do anything to change them. In fact, he rather accentuated their fearfulness as a way of intimidating Effi.

Crofton, Md.: Did you read Too Far Afield by Gunter Grass whose main character is linked to Theodore Fontane? His novel was a good read. Innsbretten came across as obtuse and rather stuffy.

I did find a copy of the Angus Wilson book in Borders.

Dennis Drabelle: Yes, in fact I reviewed Too Far Afield for Book World because of the Fontane connection. Grass obviously loves Fontane very much, as did Thomas Mann. Fontane seems to be a kind of father figure to German literature, although he is not well known here.
The Angus Wilson was in print when I first chose it for the Book Club but apparently supplies were exhausted soon afterwards. Which is a shame--it's a very entertaining book about archaelogical fraud, academe, and the reawakening of a character on the verge of old age. If it comes back in print, I will definitely make it a future selection.

Bethesda, Md.: What kind of justice is portrayed in this Victorian novel where Effi's husband premeditatively sets a man up for murder, throws his wife out of their house, deprives her of seeing her child, makes her ill, and abandons her to the goodwill of her not so really loving parents? And escapes any punishment? Or is this yet another example of the gender bias of that time? We think Effi is representative of a category. In what ways might she be considered unique?

Dennis Drabelle: I guess the one exception I would take to your indictment is the first one. Both Instetten and Crampas willingly entered into the duel, as the code of their militaristic society expected. One of the arresting aspects of all this is how in the end Effi herself comes to believe that her husband was right to have cut her off the way he did. The problem with the society, it seems to me, is not just that it was rigid and stacked against women: it had no safety valve for anyone who broke its rules. Once you transgressed, you were done-for, an inhuman way of dealing with people.

Washington, D.C.: Would you like to compare it to Madame Bovary?

Dennis Drabelle: Offhand, I would say that Flaubert is more interested in portraying Madame Bovary herself than the society she lives in (not that some of French mid-19th century mores don't appear, however) and that Fontane is more intent on portraying a society, especially its reaction to an irruption of scandalous behavior in its midst. As I recall, Flaubert takes us painstakingly through every wrinkle of Emma's adultery and the consequences, whereas Fontane skips over so much of this, leaving the reader to infer the details, because he wants to paint a broader portrait of a milieu. But I would be happy to hear from you and other readers who may have read Madame Bovary more recently than I have.

Crofton, Md.: While the characters were certainly low-key, I'm wondering what made this a great German novel. I like Mann better and the modern WG Seybold or Grass.

Dennis Drabelle: One of the things that I find so winning about Effi is what I've alluded to earlier, the feeling of being immersed in the Prussian society of the time. Getting a sense of the furnishings of houses, of the fads and jokes going around Berlin, of how far the code of honor will stretch (not very far), of how provincial people tried to entertain themselves and keep up with what was going on in the larger world. I like Mann but sometimes find him a bit ponderous, even, if you'll pardon the stereotype, Teutonic. Fontane, by contrast (and perhaps it's that Gallic heritage of his) whisks his plot and characters along with elan. Overall, I know of very few novels that encapsulate two distinct settings and social milieus(Berlin and rural Prussia) and a trenchant of one of the society's main engines of motivation (the code of honor) in such succinct form.

Washington, D.C.: Could you tell us a bit about Theodor Fontane himself? I find so little is written about him, and I'm curious.

Dennis Drabelle: He was the son of a pharmacist and did some pill-dispensing himself before turning to journalism. He spent several years in England as a young reporter for a German newspaper and became an Anglophile. He also toured the country and wrote a travel book about it--and later one about his home turf, the Mark Brandenburg. He came to fiction writing late, embarking on his first novel, Before the Storm, in his late fifties. Once that was published, he was off and running, turning out 16 more novels and novellas in the last two decades of his life. Meanwhile, he was the drama critic for a Berlin newspaper, so he was at the heart of the city's artistic scene. Though every inch a German, he was proud of his French heritage (his forebears were Huguenots who had fled to Germany after the edict of Nantes was repealed in France, in 1685, I believe).

Washington, D.C. : Is this book one of trickery? Since,I didn't read this as a member of this bookclub trying despearately to get online or read, I have only to wonder.

Sounds dark and sinister to me but might have some light romantic humor. Am I at least two points corect?

Dennis Drabelle: I'm not sure I understand this question. There is plenty of darkness in the book, and some light humor, especially in the characterization of Effi's dad, who thinks everything is too big a question for the likes of him to settle (but who also proves himself to be a mensch in the end, when he suggests to his wife that they overcome their "principles" and take Effi back into the family). I don't see much trickery in the book, though. The characters seem almost guileless, in fact.

Washington, D.C.: Would you compare Effi's tragedy to that of Anna Karenina?

Dennis Drabelle: Here I will have to defer to someone who knows Anna K. better than I. I read it too long ago (1969, to be exact) to be able to say much about it today. It's one of those classics on my to-reread list. Can anybody else help?

Crofton, Md.: Did fontaie know and read Flaubert's novels such as Madame Bovary? Bovary could be compared to Instetten and Emma to Effie.

Dennis Drabelle: Yes, someone else made the same point. Fontane knew French, and as I recall Madame Bovary came out about a generation before Effi was published. So I think it is quite likely that Fontane read it. And it seems reasonable to me to think that Fontane may have tailored his book the way he did partly to strike a fresh, new note while dealing with the same basic subject as Flaubert's.

Washington D.C.: The discussion of Innstetten in the latter part of the opening paragraph of Chapter 13 seemed somewhat out of character, as Fontane seems to allow conversations and letters to bring out character. The comment that Innstetten was kind and good (questionable?)but was no lover (the latter obvious from the description of the honeymoon) conveys so little. Innstettin is a complex character, especially in what appears to be the hot-house social environment of Prussian society. The sentences following the lover comment seem to reinforce the character with whom we become familiar, but I'm lost on the significance of the Wagner reference. Could you provide some guidance on this passage?

Dennis Drabelle: Good question, but I'm not sure I have the answer. I'm not much of a Wagnerite, though I can see the connection between having a nervous sensibility and being fond of Wagner's sometimes very kinetic music. As for the Jewish question, I would assume that the anti-Semitism that colored Wagner's writings and pronouncements (more so, I believe, than his operas' actual contents) would have been congenial to Geert. Fontane doesn't make much of this--in fact, it's almost a throwaway line--but then he could hardly have seen the results to which German anti-Semitism would lead. Wish I could be more helpful here.

Bethesda, Md.: "Anna Karenina" differs in that Anna runs away with Vronsky for a long-term relationship and then has time to see the relationship begin to deteriorate. But the novels are similar in that the reactions of society determine what happens. One thinks as one reads "Anna," oh, if only she had simply gotten divorced.

Dennis Drabelle: Thanks for helping out. Maybe the most significant point of comparison is that there are no simple solutions for either Anna or Effi. Their societies are not structured in such a way that a woman can control what happens to her after she departs from the sexual regime that society has erected. For women, it's a one-strike and you're out world.

Crofton, Md.: Are other books by Fontane available in libraries or bookstores?

Dennis Drabelle: Yes, as I mentioned in the introduction to this chat, several of the novels are in print (though they may have to be ordered). Unfortunately, however, what many consider to be Fontane's masterpiece, Die Stettin, has not to my knowledge been translated into English.

Washington, D.C.: "Guileless" - yes, that's the word for Effi's mother, who does seem to love Effi yet sends her off as a very young person to a loveless marriage with wn "older" man who marries Effi for the "connection." The mother's behavior towards Effi when she has been thrown out of her husband's house must be blamed on the Prussian personality, I would think, but even when she takes Effi back she seems pretty stupid about her daughter's needs. "Guileless" fits her well.

Dennis Drabelle: And pretty cruel, too. That letter in which she basically tells Effi to get lost is heartless, almost insultingly so. But then this is also a society in which dueling is commonplace, so both males and females behave in ways that we find puzzling. I think the one nit I would pick with the book is that Effi's mother seems to give in too easily when her husband proposes that they relent and take Effi back. Wouldn't she at least put up a fight about how hard it will be to turn their backs on all their friends before letting herself be won over?

Bethesda, Md.: Although the book is readable and does tell one something about the life of that time and those places, it seems rather slight and contrived -- especially in contrast with the novels one immediately thinks of, "Madame Bovary" and "Anna Karenina." It is surprising to me that it maintains its interest -- and, in fact, that it has been made into a movie four times (once very successfully by Fassbinder).

Dennis Drabelle: I guess it is slight, but I don't feel that it is contrived. I imagine it is the letters you're talking about, but I don't have any trouble believing that Effi would keep these. They are evidence that can be used against her, yes, but they are also evidence in the sense of memorabilia: reminders of the one of the few times of intense feeling in that dreary marriage of hers.

Lenexa, Kan.: A lesson from the novel: Destroy all letters written in the fire of passion -- even if to your spouse. Most of us don't have to worry about biographers, still -- who needs posthumous embarrassment? Does Drabelle have any squirreled away? Thanks much.

P.S. On a more serious note, I liked the way the novel captured the Golden Age of Prussia.

Dennis Drabelle: Drabelle has some old letters lying around, but none that are compromising (at least not that I remember--but now that you mention it maybe I'd better have a look).

Lenexa, Kan.: Mr. Drabelle,

Knew Effi Briest via Fassbinder film. Hadn't read Fontane till now. Really enjoyed.

The novel seems a perfect complement to fellow Prussian Kant -- who spent a lifetime pondering "the starry heavens above and the moral law within." One thinks of the young spirited Effi soaring on the swing -- giggling with her friends -- and a few years later heartbreakingly "pariahed" -- requesting "Briest" on her stone: "I didn't bring any honor" (to Innstetten). Another German ethicist Nietzsche said it best: "The boy Eros was made to drink poison."

Question: Did you share my affection for Pastor Niemeyer's humanity? It contrasts nicely with the self-appointed guardians of America's morals we face in our current ethos. Thanks.

Dennis Drabelle: Yes, I liked the minor characters, Niemeyer included, very much. My favorite, I think, was Gieshubler in Kessin--the small town culture vulture.

Bethesda, Md.: I was first interested in this book because my ancestors came to this country from East Prussia around 1860, and I thought the book might give me some insight into the culture of their time and place.(I think the book is of limited value in this regard because my relatives were probably farmers, of a much different social class than represented in this novel.) Is there other literature you can recommend for my purpose?

Dennis Drabelle: I would recommend more Fontane, esp. Jennie Traubel, in which there is a very interesting love affair between a baron and a working-class girl.

Dennis Drabelle: Thanks to everyone for a stimulating and informative discussion.

Washington, D.C.: Is that your only nit, Mr. Drabelle? I do agree with you on that one: mother did give in too easily. I do think the book is a fine piece of literature and maybe I'm just a nitpicker at heart, but it seems to me that the haunted house, all by itself, leaves more than one nit.

Dennis Drabelle: If we're still online, I will say that the haunted house business shows what a big kid Effi really was, gullible, suggestible, easily manipulated by her husband.

Scotland, U.K.: Just a comment. Fontane's last novel, Der Stechlin has been translated into (American) English by William Zwiebel and was published a few years ago by the US academic publisher Camden House.

Dennis Drabelle: Thanks, and sorry for garbling the title. I will have to get hold of it.

Dennis Drabelle: Thanks again to everyone. This ends our chat. Go home and throw away your revealing letters and kill those compromising emails.

washingtonpost.com:

That was our last question today. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion. Begin sending your question's to next month's Book Club discussion on Thursday, Aug. 30, at Noon EDT. Book World contributing editor Jennifer Howard will be leading the discussion on Rick Moody's "The Ice Storm."

Stay tuned to Live Online:

Advice: Carolyn Hax at 3 p.m. EDT
Astrologer Charlene Lichtenstein at 6 p.m. EDT

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