Effi Briest

By: Theodor Fontane

Narrated by: Lucy Scott

Often compared to Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest tells the poignant story of a passionate and spontaneous young woman who becomes trapped in a dull and restrictive upper-class existence.

Married at the tender age of 17 to Geert von Innstetten, an ambitious nobleman and civil servant nearly 20 years her senior, unworldly Effi is whisked away to the quiet town of Kessin, on the Baltic coast of Prussia, where she is left to raise a daughter alone while her husband travels for work. Effi's loneliness drives her into the arms of Major Crampas, a cunning womanizer who tempts her into adultery and lets her live out her passions. The affair is soon ended, and almost forgotten, until fate and negligence resurrect it, with devastating results.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2020 Naxos Audiobooks

masterful storytelling

The story of Anna Karenina with the tone of Pride and Prejudice. Short but poignant, intensely symbolic.

Great perspective on a bygone era

A tragic tale, largely created by the society in which the characters lived the inviolable rules of the times.