Fontane’s novel is set in Berlin in the 1870s. Peter Bowman’s comprehensive afterword describes how the author only became a novelist at the age of sixty, after a long career in journalism. This novel describes the class divisions in Berlin, a city I was visiting as I read it. Lena is a seamstress who has met the Baron Botho whilst out rowing on a lake in Treptower park. The baron rescues her and her companion when it seems as though their rowing boat might capsize. He is then enchanted by her and they indulge in a brief, doomed affair. The class barriers are too firmly entrenched to be overcome and Botho ends up marrying a wealthy cousin. Where a more romantic vision of the tale might have seen one or the other of the lovers subsequently entering into crisis, Fontane resists this approach. Lena is too sensible to do anything foolish, and Botho, even if he is something of a dreamer, too cowardly. Each pines for the other but the novel concludes with each getting on with their lives. It’s an understated tale, which emerges from an era of relative peace. Berlin at the time was enjoying a period of gradual evolution, as the city’s limits expanded. After visiting Treptower Park and sat eating a wurst whilst observing the boaters on the lake, there is a sense that in many ways, the rhythms and dynamics of the city have not changed all that much. In a city where the botched experiment to destroy class divisions met its final dead end, people still probably have as much chance of crossing the class barrier if their boat needs rescuing as any other way.
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