German · 1819–1898
Theodor Fontane was the leading German novelist of the late nineteenth century and the master of German Poetic Realism. He began his literary career as a journalist and travel writer and turned to fiction only in his late fifties, producing a series of novels — including Effi Briest, The Stechlin, and Irrungen, Wirrungen — that are among the finest achievements of German realism.