Author: Fontane, Theodor

Classic fiction (pre c 1945)

Published on 6 November 2025 by Pushkin Press (Pushkin Press Classics) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 208 pages
129 x 197 x 18 | 186g

'Sparkling, tender, sympathetic, delicately ironic, and psychologically astute' - Phillip Lopate, New York Review of Books

'On Tangled Paths has the flawless logic and beautiful design of the novella at its best' - Paul Binding, Spectator

Lene is an orphaned seamstress; Botho is a nobleman and an officer in one of the Prussian army's most glittering regiments. But whatever their differences of class and education, their hearts are equal to each other. Over the course of a summer in 1870s Berlin, they enjoy a clear-eyed, tender love affair, in spite of the judgements and warnings of those around them.

The end comes all too soon, and Botho marries a wealthy cousin. When, years later, 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.

Full of tender irony and vivid evocations of a quickly expanding Berlin and its bucolic surroundings, this small masterpiece gives us a love story poised between the strict social codes of the 19th century and the sometimes bewildering freedoms of the 20th.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Peter James Bowman.

Theodor Fontane (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 No Way Back and Effi Briest.

Peter James Bowman holds a PhD in German Literature from Cambridge. He has translated works by Stefan Zweig and Johanna Spyri as well as Theodor Fontane.