Poet and novelist, born in Neuruppin, NE Germany. He worked in the family chemist's business until he took to literature in Berlin (1849). Periods of residence in Britain (18559) as a newspaper correspondent led to ballads such as Archibald Douglas, and other British-based pieces. His later realistic novels influenced Thomas Mann; the first of them, Vor dem Sturm (1878, Before the Storm), an account of Prussian nobility, was followed by L'Adultera (1882) and Effi Briest (1898).
| Theodor Fontane | |
|---|---|
| Born |
30 December 1819 Neuruppin |
| Died |
20 September 1898 Berlin |
Theodor Fontane (December 30, 1819 – September 20, 1898) was a 19th-century German novelist and poet.
Youth
Fontane was born in Neuruppin into a Huguenot family. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an apothecary, his father's profession, subsequently becoming an apothecary himself, and in 1839, at the age of 20, wrote his first work (Heinrichs IV. Fontane's first published work, "Sibling Love," appeared in the Berlin Figaro in December 1839. Craig in Theodor Fontane: Literature and History in the Bismarck Reich (Oxford University Press, 1999) observes that this work gave few indications of his promise as a gifted writer: "Although the theme of incest, which was to occupy Fontane on later occasions, is touched upon here, the mawkishness of the tale...
His first job as apothecary was in Dresden after which he returned to his father's shop, now in the provincial town of Letschin in the Oderbruch region. Fleeing the provincial atmosphere there, Fontane published articles in the Leipzig newspaper Die Eisenbahn and translated Shakespeare.
Newspaper writer and critic
In 1844 Fontane enrolled in the Prussian army and set out on the first of numerous journeys to England which fostered his interest in Old English ballads, a form he began to imitate then.
He briefly participated in the revolutionary events of 1848.
London
His books about Britain include Ein Sommer in London (1854);
Back in Germany, Fontane became particularly interested in the Mark Brandenburg region.
Prussian War
In 1870, he quit his job at the Kreuzzeitung and became drama critic for the liberal Vossische Zeitung, a job he kept until retirement.
Later years
At the ripe age of 57 Fontane finally took to what he would be remembered for, the novel. His fine historical romance Vor dem Sturm (1878) was followed by a series of novels of modern life, notably L'Adultera (1882), a book about adultery which was considered so risqué that it took Fontane two years to find a publisher. In Der Stechlin (1899), his last finished novel, Fontane adapted the realistic methods and social criticism of contemporary French fiction to the conditions of Prussian life.
Famous Quote
In a letter to Sigmund Freud, Fontane wrote, "It seems my modest wishes are not to be granted."
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