Catalog Search Results

This first major novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse incorporates a theme he returned to again and again in most of his works: the fundamental duality of existence. The youthful protagonist, Emil Sinclair, however, his older friend, Max Demian, manages to both clarify and complicate Sinclair's confusion about life's conflicting values. Recounted in engaging prose, rich in sympathy and imagination, this brilliant exploration of the polarities...

Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane is a seminal work of 19th-century German realism that delves into the themes of societal constraint, marital duty, and personal tragedy. The novel tells the story of Effi, a young woman married off to a much older man, Baron von Innstetten, in a union based more on social expectation than love. As Effi navigates the rigid moral codes of Prussian society, her emotional repression and eventual transgression lead to devastating...