[ Fontane / Effi Briest ]
Theodor Fontane (30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German journalist, writer, and poet, one of the more highly-regarded figures of 19th-Century German letters.
Effi Briest (1895) is the tragic story of the troubled marriage and divorce of the titular character. One of the consolations available to Effi in her difficulties is the companionship of her Newfoundland, Rollo, "a Newfoundland dog, a most beautiful animal, that loves me and will love you, too. For Rollo is a connoisseur. So long as you have him about you, you are safe, and nothing can get at you, neither a live man nor a dead one." Rollo is mentioned more than 60 times in the novel.
This work has been filmed several times, including as recently as 2009.
The text of the novel is available at Project Gutenberg, where it is part of a collection of several Fontane works, though the link in this sentence will take you directly to the start of Effi Briest.
Note: the translator of this work, William A. Cooper, also abridged the novel, so some of its chapters are presented only in brief summaries.
A brief discussion of the novel is available at Wikipedia.
Thanks to Anne Anderson for bringing this work to my attention.
