Synopses & Reviews
The mix of famous and obscure writers should offer something to both academic and popular taste: altogether the series seems admirable in its aims and in its execution.
--London Times
Reveal s] the audacious diversity of women's imaginations before feminism.
--The Oberserver
Relates the sufferings of a superlatively virtuous heroine victimized by a sadistic libertine lover and worldly relatives. Its expressive delineation of feelings, particularly the delicate sensitivity of the heroine, introduced the sentimental novel into Germany and inspired Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther.
--Belles Lettres
Sophie von La Roche (1731-1807) is the most famous German 18th-century woman writer, and this is her best known novel. It is also the first novel by a German woman to appear in print. A psychologically intense drama of the struggle of a young country woman to live virtuously in the face of the malevolent intrigues of family, friends, and lovers, it became an icon for young writers of the Sturm und Drang' generation of the late 18th-century. Goethe admired it and wrote The Sorrows of Young Werther under its influence. With its message of the triumph of truth and virtue over self-love, this book stands as one of the great works of the Age of Sentiment.
Synopsis
The best-known novel of Sophie von La Roche, a German 18th-century woman writer. The plot reflects typical 18th-century concerns: the value of sentiment and the importance of virtue in attaining a good life. The publication of this novel reflects a recent revival of interest in the author.