Gottfried Keller and Theodor Fontane are among the most important authors in Realism. A comparative reading of the two narrative writers reveals a multi-facetted interplay of similarities and differences. At the same time, an exemplary insight can be gained into the artistic positions and aesthetic processes of the time after 1848 up to the divergences of modernism around 1900.

The volume presents the collected papers from the international symposium held in Zurich in 2006; the contributors include Peter von Matt, Hugo Aust, Michael Andermatt, Roland Berbig, Gabriele Radecke, Peter Utz and Karl Pestalozzi.