at the ripe age of 57 fontane finally took to what he would be remembered for, the novel. his fine historical novel "vor dem sturm" (1878) was followed by a series of novels of modern life, notably "l'adultera" (1882), a book about adultery which was considered so risqué that it took fontane two years to find a publisher. in his novels "frau jenny treibel", "irrungen, wirrungen", and "effi briest" (1894), he found his very own tone, he wrote about insights into the lives of the nobility as well as the "common man"; his achievement there was later described as poetic realism. in "der stechlin" (1899), his last finished novel, fontane adapted the realistic methods and social criticism of contemporary french fiction to the conditions of prussian life.