far superior as a novel and
helped to establish Fontane's supremacy among his contemporaries, for
he had become the leader of the younger generation after the
publication of two stories of crimes, _Grete Minde_ (1880) and
_Ellernklipp_ (1881), and the creation of the modern Berlin novel, in
_L'Adultera_ (1882). _L'Adultera_ unfolds the history of a marriage of
reason between a young wife and a considerably older husband, a
situation which Fontane later treated, with important variations and
ever increasing skill, in _Count Petoefi_ (1884), _Cecile_ (1887), and
_Effi Briest_ (1895). With his inexhaustible fund of observation to
draw upon he could make the action of his novels a minor consideration
and concentrate his rare psychological powers upon realistic
conversations in which characters reveal themselves and incidentally
acquaint us intimately with others. We see and hear what the world
ordinarily sees and hears. A past master in the art of suggestion,
which he acquired in his ballad period, Fontane omits many scenes that
others would elaborate with minute detail, such as love scenes and
passionate crises, and contents himself with bringing vividly before
us his true-to-life figures in their historical and social
environments. As a conservative Prussian he believed in the supremacy
of the law and the punishment of transgression, and his works reflect
this belief.

_Trials and Tribulations_ (1887) and _Stine_ (1890) were the first
German novels absolutely to avoid the introduction of exciting scenes
merely for effect. These histories of mismated couples from different
social strata are recounted with hearty simplicity, deep understanding
of life, and frank recognition of human weakness, but without
condemnation, tears, or pointing a moral. They made Fontane famous.
_Frau Jenny Treibel_ (1892), an exquisitely humorous picture of the
Berlin _bourgeoisie_, and _Effi Briest_ "the most profound miracle of
Fontane's youthful art," added considerably to the fame of the
gray-haired "modern," while _The Poggenpuhls_ (1896) and _Stechlin_
(1898) won him further laurels at a time when most writers would long
ago have been resting on those they had already achieved. If a line
were drawn to represent graphically his productivity from his sixtieth
year on, it would take the form of a gradually rising curve.

His career as a novelist began so late in life that when he once
discovered his particular field he cultivated it with per