‘Why haven’t I got any proper dresses? Why don’t you make a lady of me?’ ‘Would you like that?’ ‘No.’ Saying which, [Effi] ran up to her mother, threw her arms round her impetuously and kissed her.[i] Theodor Fontane (1819–1898) was a German poet and novelist best known for his realist style and social criticism of Wilhelm II’s Prussian Empire. In 1895, Fontane wrote Effi  Continue Reading …