German classic writer. He worked as a journalist, theater critic and correspondent in England, in the Franco-Prussian War. He also wrote several popular ballads and numerous travel books. At an advanced age, 56 years old, Fontane began his novelistic career. His first play, a historical novel, Before the Storm, was unanimously acclaimed. In his writings, he moved away from the literary form of the Bildungsroman (training novel) to explore the tensions of the society of his time, especially regarding the middle classes and women. The Novels that followed, The Adulteress, Errors and Misdirections, Mrs. Jenny Treibel, and her masterpiece, Effi Briest, are characterized by their irony and empathy, characteristics that consecrated him as a master of the modern realistic novel. His latest novel, The Stechlin, appeared posthumously.