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An original and invigorating approach to the social novels of Theodor Fontane, this sensitive study examines how Fontane's use of language traverses the gradations between avowal and irony. Tucker reveals that this 19th-century German novelist was a sharp observer and critic of the 'Berlin idiom' and its historical consequences. He demonstrates that, in the end and despite all his ironic play with language, Fontane seeks accuracy and reliability in human conversation, a 'tighter . . . connection between words and things.' Tucker's insightful parsing of Fontane's brilliant engagement with language inspires us to read these novels anew amid the delusions and confusions of our own 'post-truth' moment. * Lynne Tatlock, Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities and Director of Comparative Literature, Washington University in St. Louis, USA * In this important study, Brian Tucker examines the tension between serious and ironic language in Theodor Fontane's work. By showing how Foucault's concept of avowal can serve as an antidote to corrosive irony, Tucker demonstrates the ways in which Fontane's fiction exposes the corruption of language in his contemporary Prussian society. Tucker develops his argument through lucid readings of Fontane's major novels, challenging along the way the common assumption that linguistic decadence is the inevitable byproduct of historical change. The book makes a major contribution to Fontane scholarship and shows why Fontane's writings continue to resonate deeply today. * Todd Kontje, Distinguished Professor and Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of California at San Diego, USA *

[Theodor Fontane] suggests intriguing critical and theoretical reorientations. * The German Quarterly * An original and invigorating approach to the social novels of Theodor Fontane, this sensitive study examines how Fontane's use of language traverses the gradations between avowal and irony. Tucker reveals that this 19th-century German novelist was a sharp observer and critic of the 'Berlin idiom' and its historical consequences. He demonstrates that, in the end and despite all his ironic play with language, Fontane seeks accuracy and reliability in human conversation, a 'tighter . . . connection between words and things.' Tucker's insightful parsing of Fontane's brilliant engagement with language inspires us to read these novels anew amid the delusions and confusions of our own 'post-truth' moment. * Lynne Tatlock, Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities and Director of Comparative Literature, Washington University in St. Louis, USA * In this important study, Brian Tucker examines the tension between serious and ironic language in Theodor Fontane's work. By showing how Foucault's concept of avowal can serve as an antidote to corrosive irony, Tucker demonstrates the ways in which Fontane's fiction exposes the corruption of language in his contemporary Prussian society. Tucker develops his argument through lucid readings of Fontane's major novels, challenging along the way the common assumption that linguistic decadence is the inevitable byproduct of historical change. The book makes a major contribution to Fontane scholarship and shows why Fontane's writings continue to resonate deeply today. * Todd Kontje, Distinguished Professor and Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of California at San Diego, USA *

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Brian Tucker is Professor of German and Chair of Humanities and Fine Arts at Wabash College. His research interests include the literature and intellectual history of the long nineteenth century, topics that he pursues in his first book, Reading Riddles: Rhetorics of Obscurity from Romanticism to Freud, and in the co-edited volume Fontane in the Twenty-First Century.

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