The interest of these novels lies rather in character than in action. While he portrays many types characteristic of Berlin and the surrounding region, and is very successful in rendering local color and the atmosphere of the particular circle described in each book, his penetration into universal human nature is sufficiently deep to raise him far above provincialism. His effort is to represent people vividly and naturally in their normal relations, not to strain after sensational or even dramatic situations, though two of his shorter tales, "Grete Minde" and "Ellernklipp," dealing as they do with crimes, are to some extent exceptions to this rule. "Trials and Tribulations" ("Irrungen Wirrungen", 1887) gives an excellent idea of his power. In a gently moving story, told without the forcing of emotion or the contriving of exciting scenes, he deals with the pathos of the relation between a man and a woman, alike in an attractive simplicity of character, but forced apart by difference of rank. The situation is laid before us without expressed censure or protest, and is allowed to have its effect by the sober truth of its presentation. Fontane's is an honest and sincere art, none the less great because unpretentious. W. A. N. CRITICISMS AND INTERPRETATIONS I By Richard M. Meyer Fontane possesses the wonderful irony of the Berliner--an irony which, paradoxical as it may sound, is naive; for it is nothing but an involuntary doubt of his equally naive conceit, as Fontane often likes to say. Assuredly the Berliner is inclined to a certain conceitedness. He belongs to a city which has grown great in a struggle against antipathies--antipathies of the Government and of the "Junker" class, of the poets and of the rival capitals, one might almost say of nature herself, so sparingly has she dealt with this city on the Spree. In this constant struggle Berlin has been victorious, and every Berliner to this day feels that victory to the marrow of his bones. Fontane, using his friend Lepel as his mouthpiece, makes him say, "Well, Fontane, there you are again; talking like an oracle. It all comes from that curiously naive belief in yourself. You always think you know everything best. But I can tell you, there are people living on the other side of the mountains too." This quiet feeling of superiority the Berliner has gained only after a struggle, and therefore he is at bottom precisely aware of his limits. No one can express this more strikingly than Fontane himself: "Deeply penetrated by my insufficiency and my ignorance, I saw--incredible though it may seem--that the ignorance of my fellow-creatures was even greater than my own. So I was at the same moment both humble and conceited." There is the typical Berliner! He knows well his own weakness, but, since he is successful,