Effi Briest – Theodor Fontane

"That is a wide field."

Effi Briest, a spirited young woman, is married off to the much older Baron von Instetten. Bored and lonely in a remote coastal town, she drifts into a brief affair with a dashing major. Years later, when the affair is discovered, the rigid code of Prussian honor forces her husband to kill her lover in a duel and cast Effi out, destroying her life.

Fontane's novel is the German counterpart to 'Madame Bovary'. It is a masterpiece of realism that subtly critiques the suffocating social codes of 19th-century Germany, painting a moving portrait of a woman crushed by a society that values honor over humanity.