One of the most original female characters created by Fontane. Mathilde, an ambitious but unattractive young woman of twenty-three, wants only one thing: to leave behind the limited atmosphere of her parents' home and make a career for herself. She sees her chance in the disheveled law student Hugo Grossmann, who moves into Georgenstrasse 19 as a "furnished gentleman." She guides him through the bar exam, identifies the vacant position of a small-town mayor, and becomes the guiding spirit of local politics. When Hugo suddenly dies, she turns her ambition towards herself. The novel "Mathilde Möhring" is one of Fontane's most important works. It remained unfinished and was published posthumously in 1906. This edition is based on the collected works, the first reliable text version developed from the manuscript.