Effi Briest
Authorship not stated
You are Effi Briest, seventeen, sewing an altar cloth with friends in the Brandenburg garden where the swing still hangs. Your mother calls you in to change your dress for a visitor: Baron von Innstetten, a district councillor from the Baltic coast who once admired her. Over tea your parents wander off to inspect the sundial, and he asks for your hand — offering respect, security and every loyalty he understands, but not love. He gives you until tomorrow; your mother comes back up the path already smiling.
Read Effi BriestChapters
- The Visitor from the PastHohen-Cremmen Manor