EFFI BRIEST - OWC,Effi Briest is steered into marriage with a man twenty years her senior, and taken to live in a remote Baltic seaport. Isolated and bored, she drifts into an affair, which is quickly ended. Years later the past catches up with Effi, with profound consequences. Fontane's masterpiece, the novel is an acute portrait of Prussian society. A new translation of this powerful novel about a troubled marriage set against the backdrop of upper-class Imperial German society. In the central character of Effi, Fontane portrays with sympathy and psychological acuity the plight of a woman trapped in an unfulfilling marriage, and the tragic consequences of transgressing unforgiving social codes. The novel has interesting parallels with Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, and reveals much about Prussian society's unease and rigidity. Mike Mitchell's sympathetic translation is accompanied by an illuminating contextualising introduction and notes.