Theodor Fontane

Theodor Fontane was a German novelist and poet who wrote realist fiction about the society of the German empire. After a career as a journalist, he published his first novel at age 58, and he is best known for Effi Briest and Frau Jenny Treibel. His novels took up subjects polite society preferred to avoid, including marital infidelity and class difference, and he is remembered for strongly drawn women characters and tender irony.