On Tangled Paths

ISBN-13: 9780141392172 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 192 str.

Theodor Fontane

Opis

A moving love story and a vivid depiction of Berlin in the 1870s, from Germany's greatest nineteenth-century novelist Theodor Fontane
In this classic novel one of the pillars of German literature Lene, a beautiful, orphaned young seamstress, falls in love with Botho, a handsome, aristocratic cavalry officer. They know they have only a short time together, as society deems their relationship inappropriate and refuses to take their love seriously. But while Botho seems to have a glittering life ahead of him, his love may be his undoing. First published in 1887, this taut, flawless masterpiece caused a scandal with its portrayal of a sexual affair across the classes.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators."

Recenzje

"On Tangled Paths has the flawless logic and beautiful design of the novella at its best"
-Paul Binding, The Spectator

"There is an undertow of sadness to this novel, yet to read it is a joy, for its humanity, subtlety and visual immediacy"
-Ruth Pavey, The Independent

"Theodor Fontane's first true masterpiece; it has a perfect beginning, a perfect ending, and no superfluous sentence in between"
-Henry Garland

O autorze

Theodor Fontane was born in the Prussian province of Brandenburg in 1819. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he made his living as a writer. From 1855 to 1859, he lived in London and worked as a freelance journalist and press agent for the Prussian embassy. While working as a war correspondent during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1 he was taken prisoner, but released after two months. His first novel, Before the Storm, was published when he was fifty-eight and was followed by sixteen further novels, of which Effi Briest, No Way Back and On Tangled Paths are all published in Penguin Classics. He died in 1898.

Peter James Bowman completed a PhD on Fontane at Cambridge University, and now works as a writer and translator. His biography of Hermann von Puckler-Muskau, The Fortune Hunter: A German Prince in Regency England was published in 2010.