Last month I read Madame Bovary for the first time. Afterwards I decided to re-read Effi Briest, having read it about 20 years ago at St. Andrews. I used to think of Effi Briest as “the German Madame Bovary” just because it was a realist novel about an adulterous wife, but really they’re quite different. One could write about the differences (in tone, characterization, focus, moral/social concerns) at great length but since this is just a blog, here’s a fun chart full of spoilers:
| Emma Bovary | Effi Briest | |
| Family background | Only daughter of widowed farmer | Only daughter of amusing couple from the minor nobility |
| Husband | Feckless doctor | Extremely correct Prussian Baron |
| Pet | Dog (runs away) | Dog (faithful) |
| Children | One daughter, Berthe | One daughter, Annie |
| Reasons for adultery | Contempt for wimpy/embarrassing husband, desire for thrilling love affairs, voluptuous nature, probably reads too many novels. | Would like to be good but has a weak, overly agreeable character. Judgment impaired by fear that her house is haunted. Needs a chaperon. |
| Lover(s) | Callous playboy (landed gentry) followed by earnest youth (lawyer) | Callous playboy (military officer) with unpleasant wife |
| Husband’s reaction | Self pity (and she’s already dead by the time he finds out) | Successfully avenges honor, divorces her, keeps child, continues living correctly. Lets her have dog. |
| Cause of death: | Suicide (arsenic) | Stress, and looking at the stars in cold, damp air |
| Raciness | Pretty high for a nineteenth-century novel; obscenity trial led (as always) to increased sales | So low it’s hard to tell how far this affair actually went. Reading between the lines required. |
Penguin has an excellent English translation of Effi Briest by Hugh Rorrison and Helen Chambers.
Now you should read “Anna Karenina” and you’ll have the 19th-c. adultery trifecta.
I would have to read “Effi Briest” to do that.