"This is a detailed and competent account of German women writers around 1800, the first of this kind in English; it offers a wealth of information about the cultural background and conditions and good analyses of selected literary works. It is written in a clear style and is often vivid and interesting; it discusses in a sober, critical form a good number of issues of feminist scholarship.
"The classical period of German literature has been considered the 'period of Goethe, ' and the enormous diversity and richness of the period has been suppressed. One of the significant aspects is the emergence of a somewhat educated female readership and of the first professional women: educators, writers, actresses, theatre directors, journal editors. The book contains a good deal of information about this previously mostly forgotten or neglected group." -- Wulf Koepke, Texas A & M University
"There is a good balance here between established scholars and quite new scholars. This group represents an emerging trend in 'German-American Germanist Feminism'--a growing group who often publish in German. It is essential that colleagues in other disciplines have feminist scholarship available to them in a language they can read." -- Ruth-Ellen B. Joeres, university of Minnesota, Twin Cities