{"product_id":"on-tangled-paths-9781805331612","title":"On Tangled Paths","description":"\u003cb\u003ePERFECT FOR FANS OF JANE AUSTEN: A seamstress and cavalry officer fall in love across class divides in this \"sparkling, tender, delicately ironic\" portrait of 19th-century Berlin (\u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A joy for its humanity, subtlety and visual immediacy.\"--\u003ci\u003e Independent\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom Germany's greatest 19th-century novelist, this realist masterpiece interrogates the strict social codes of a rapidly changing era through a wistful struggle between love and obligation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLene is an orphaned seamstress; Botho is a nobleman and an officer in one of the Prussian army's most glittering regiments. But despite their differences of class and education, they fall quickly in love, spending a summer together in a clear-eyed, tender love affair before society's demands force them cruelly apart. Now married to a wealthy cousin, Botho learns years later that Lene too has an opportunity to marry. Her ex-lover must choose between holding on to regret or letting go of the past - along with the possibility of getting Lene herself back. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUnusually progressive for literature of the period, this masterwork of Fontane's portrays a love story that defies class boundaries, full of tender irony and vivid evocations of a quickly expanding Berlin and its bucolic surroundings. Fontane bring sharp psychological insight to his achingly sympathetic portrayal of two lovers torn between their hearts and the obligations of social circumstance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTheodor Fontane\u003c\/b\u003e (1819-98) was born in a small Prussian town and then moved to Berlin. He worked for most of his life as a journalist, and spent many years in London as a foreign correspondent for the Prussian intelligence agency. He began writing novels at the age of fifty-seven, and these works earned him an enduring reputation in German letters. Several of his realist masterpieces are published or forthcoming from Pushkin Press, including \u003ci\u003eNo Way Back\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eEffi Briest\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter James Bowman\u003c\/b\u003e holds a PhD in German Literature from Cambridge. He has translated works by Stefan Zweig and Johanna Spyri as well as Theodor Fontane.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Pushkin Press Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52039801766162,"sku":"9781805331612","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_4aadb85c-527c-4af7-b138-cf0f680e9ae8.jpg?v=1771414789","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/on-tangled-paths-9781805331612","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}