Fanny Lewald: Between Rebellion and Renunciation provides the first comprehensive account in English of the life and work of Fanny Lewald (1811-1889), tracing the way she positioned herself – sometimes precariously – between rebellion and renunciation. All genres are considered: novels and stories, autobiography, travel literature, essays, diaries, and letters. Widely recognized as one of the early German advocates of women’s right to education and work, this study places Lewald’s views on these issues in a broadly comparative cultural context. This book will, therefore, be of interest not only to specialists in German literature, but also to students and scholars of European cultural and social history, Jewish studies, and women’s studies.

The Author: Margaret E. Ward is Professor of German at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she held the William R. Kenan, Jr. professorship from 1995 to 1997. She received her Ph.D. in Germanic languages and literatures at Indiana University (Bloomington) and has been the recipient of NEH and Fulbright research fellowships. The author of Rolf Hochhuth (1977), she has published widely on nineteenth- and twentieth-century German literature, post-1945 political theater, and women’s biography.