The History Of Lady Sophia Sternheim

This is the first translation of this work into English since 1776, and the only English version that is complete and unadulterated. Sophie von LaRoche is credited with being the first German female novelist and author of the first German "woman's novel." The History of Lady Sophia Sternheim is the first German Bildungsroman with a female protaganist, the first full-fledged German epistolary novel, and the first German sentimental novel. Its autobiographical aspects, incorporating thinly disguised vignettes of Wieland, Goethe, and other great figures of the day, give the work an unmistakably true-to-life flavor and immediacy.

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.

This is the first translation of this work into English since 1776, and the only English version that is complete and unadulterated. Sophie von LaRoche is credited with being the first German female novelist and author of the first German “woman’s novel.” The History of Lady Sophia Sternheim is the first German Bildungsroman with a female protaganist, the first full-fledged German epistolary novel, and the first German sentimental novel. Its autobiographical aspects, incorporating thinly disguised vignettes of Wieland, Goethe, and other great figures of the day, give the work an unmistakably true-to-life flavor and immediacy.

"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.