Theodor Fontane Literature and History in the Bismarck Reich

Praise for the German edition: "The book that gave me most pleasure--long-term pleasure--right through the summer and autumn was Gordon A. Craig's [Theodor Fontane]." --Gabriele Annan in The Times Literary Supplement
"The author, originally from Scotland, belongs to the most highly regarded group of scholars and artists in Germany, the Order Pour le Merite, which he owes not only to his comprehensive historical works, which have made him famous as a scholar, but equally to the slender essays and miniatures that German readers have learned to know and treasure in books like The End of Prussia and The Politics of the Unpolitical. The book on Fontane should be read in the same way as they. The chapters are independent essays. One can read them with pleasure one after another or--as in the case of a good wine of which one brings a bottle from the cellar from time to time--they can be read at intervals, with the pauses in between that make it possible to enjoy an excellent thing for a good while." --Die Woche
"As lively in its narrative style as it is instructive in its interpretation, this is the best Fontane book for an audience that, with all of its desire for knowledge, does not want to be bored, and it is written, in addition, in the Fontane conversational style." --Welt am Sonntag