{"product_id":"on-tangled-paths-9781805331612","title":"On Tangled Paths","description":"\u003cb\u003ePERFECT FOR FANS OF JANE AUSTEN: A seamstress and cavalry officer fall in love across class divides in this \"sparkling, tender, delicately ironic\" portrait of 19th-century Berlin (\u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A joy for its humanity, subtlety and visual immediacy.\"--\u003ci\u003e Independent\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom Germany's greatest 19th-century novelist, this realist masterpiece interrogates the strict social codes of a rapidly changing era through a wistful struggle between love and obligation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLene is an orphaned seamstress; Botho is a nobleman and an officer in one of the Prussian army's most glittering regiments. But despite their differences of class and education, they fall quickly in love, spending a summer together in a clear-eyed, tender love affair before society's demands force them cruelly apart. Now married to a wealthy cousin, Botho learns years later that 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUnusually progressive for literature of the period, this masterwork of Fontane's portrays a love story that defies class boundaries, full of tender irony and vivid evocations of a quickly expanding Berlin and its bucolic surroundings. Fontane bring sharp psychological insight to his achingly sympathetic portrayal of two lovers torn between their hearts and the obligations of social circumstance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Pushkin Press Classics\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/24\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781805331612\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 208\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.81lbs","brand":"Theodor Fontane","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52136430698677,"sku":"9781805331612","price":15.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_2b63a476-3629-4dd8-be99-7c7415086b90.jpg?v=1767114522","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/on-tangled-paths-9781805331612","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}