Big Books of Summer
Theodor Fontane

Theodor Fontane’s Followers (225)

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Theodor Fontane


Born
in Neuruppin (Brandenburg), Germany
December 30, 1819

Died
September 20, 1898

Genre
Contemporary, Fiction, Poetry

Influences
Ivan Turgenev, George Eliot ...more


Theodor Fontane, novelist, critic, poet, and travel writer, was one of the most celebrated nineteenth-century German men of letters. He was born into a French Huguenot family in the Prussian town of Neuruppin, where his father owned a small pharmacy. His father’s gambling debts forced the family to move repeatedly, and eventually his temperamentally mismatched parents separated.

Though Fontane showed early interest in history and literature - jotting down stories in his school notebooks - he could not afford to attend university; instead he apprenticed as a pharmacist and eventually settled in Berlin. There he joined the influential literary society Tunnel über der Spree, which included among its members Theodor Storm and Gottfried Keller, a ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.32 · 28,859 ratings · 1,723 reviews · 1,080 distinct works • Similar authors
Effi Briest
3.28 avg rating — 16,759 ratings — published 1895 — 49 editions
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Irrungen, Wirrungen
3.25 avg rating — 3,896 ratings — published 1887 — 198 editions
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Frau Jenny Treibel
3.04 avg rating — 1,365 ratings — published 1892 — 2 editions
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Unterm Birnbaum
by
3.07 avg rating — 1,287 ratings — published 1885 — 145 editions
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The Stechlin
by
3.67 avg rating — 797 ratings — published 1898 — 2 editions
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Irretrievable
by
3.64 avg rating — 558 ratings — published 1891 — 107 editions
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L'Adultera
by
3.33 avg rating — 347 ratings — published 1882 — 78 editions
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Mathilde Möhring
3.31 avg rating — 335 ratings — published 1906 — 82 editions
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Cécile
by
3.40 avg rating — 283 ratings — published 1887 — 82 editions
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Grete Minde: nach einer alt...
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3.42 avg rating — 273 ratings — published 1879 — 22 editions
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More books by Theodor Fontane…

Series by Theodor Fontane

Meine Kinderjahre. Autobiog... Von Zwanzig bis Dreißig
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3.67 avg rating — 81 ratings

Die Grafschaft Ruppin Wanderungen durch die Mark ... Wanderungen durch die Mark ... Spreeland Fünf Schlösser. Altes und N...
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3.67 avg rating — 49 ratings

Quotes by Theodor Fontane  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Bücher haben Ehrgefühl. Wenn man sie verleiht, kommen sie nicht mehr zurück.”
― Theodor Fontane
22 likes
Like

“Ein Optimist ist ein Mensch, der ein Dutzend Austern bestellt, in der Hoffnung, sie mit der Perle, die er darin findet, bezahlen zu können.”
― Theodor Fontane
18 likes
Like

“Ich liebe dich ja… wie heißt es doch, wenn man einen Zweig abbricht und die Blätter abreißt? Von Herzen, mit Schmerzen, über alle Maßen.”
― Theodor Fontane, Effi Briest
tags: love
16 likes
Like

Polls

July 2026 Old School Classics Poll

 
  39 votes, 33.1%

 
  21 votes, 17.8%

Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki, 1914, 256 pages
 
  16 votes, 13.6%

Rob Roy by Walter Scott, 1817, 501 pages
Last read by the group in 2012
 
  13 votes, 11.0%

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz, 1896, 589 pages
 
  13 votes, 11.0%

Vathek by William Beckford, 1786, 180 pages
 
  8 votes, 6.8%

Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane, 1895, 272 pages
 
  5 votes, 4.2%

 
  3 votes, 2.5%

118 total votes
More...

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