Trials and Tribulations

Theodor Fontane · 1819–1898 · Germany

Originally Irrungen, Wirrungen (German)

Why it matters

A Prussian officer and a working-class florist share a doomed love neither can afford to keep. Fontane's spare, ironic Berlin novel of class barriers no amount of tenderness can dissolve.

At a glance

Short, understated realist prose carried mostly by dialogue.