i cried at the end and that was the last thing i expected from this book.

i read "effi briest" for my history of literature exam upon hearing what it's about. i decided to read it because it focuses on a woman and deals with social conventions that dictated everyone's lives and oh does it touch you as a woman.

effi is a character that you might not love but can't hate. she's a child at the beginning and reading it as a 19 year old (so 2 years older than effi at the beginning) in 21st century made me biased, probably, but from the very beginning it is pretty easy to guess that nothing good is going to come out from her marriage hence i really couldn't help but feel for her throughout the entire book.

i have a lot to say, i hope i get to do it on my exam, but one thing i want to say here is that i found all characters to be really well structured. they have traits that make them behave in a way they do, reflections that serve their purpose as a criticism of the society (for a reader at least, as some of them aren't rebellious and often submit to them, but at least they do reflect a little bit) and major characters are multi-dimensional.

a very interesting read, i liked fontane's writing especially towards the end and i'll probably check out his other works in the future.