success and have been in translations also enjoyed by many English and American readers.
With like enthusiasm the women of Germany read the novels of Wilhelmine Heimburg, Louise von Francois ("Die letzte Reckenburgerin") and Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach. The latter is regarded as the greatest of all modern novelists of Germany, Paul Heyse not excepted. When the University in Vienna bestowed upon her the degree of Doctor phil. honoris causa, the enormous body of her readers heartily rejoiced. Her most famous novel is "Das Gemeindekind" ("The child of the Parish'). She also published a volume of "Aphorisms."
Wilhelmine von Hillern's once much read novel "Die Geierwally" has been surpassed by far more valuable works of IIse Frapan, Ida Boy-Ed, Helene Pichler, Margarete von Bülow, Bianca Bobertag, Ossip Schubin, Helene Böhlau, Emma Vely, Emmy von Dinklage, Dora Dunker, Marie von Bunsen, Sophie Junghans, Louise Westkirch, Clara Blüthgen, Olga Wohlbrück, Carry Brachvogel and a number of other modern writers.
Among them Enrica von Handel-Mazetti and Ricarda Huch are distinguished by their great ability in drawing strong characters as well as deeply affecting situations. The first of the two authors transports her readers in the two novels "Meinrad Helmpergers denkwürdiges Jahr" and "Jesse und Maria" to the turbulent times of the 17th and 18th Centuries, when a superstitious world was upset by cruel warfare between Catholics and Protestants. Ricarda Huch created works of equal value in the novels "Erinnerungen von Ludolf Urslen dem Jüngeren" ("Reminiscences of Ludolf Urslen, Junior"), "Aus der Triumphgasse" ("From the Alley of Triumph") and "The Verteidigung Roms" ("The Defense of Rome").
Elizabeth von Heyking carried the reader to the more recent times of the Chinese Boxer War with her admirable novel "Briefe die ihn nicht erreichten" ("Letters he did not get").
Clara Viebig belongs likewise to the great novelists of modern times. Having manifested in her first collection of short stories, "Kinder der Eifel" ("Children of the Eifel Plateau"), a most extraordinary gift of observation and description, she brought this talent to full development in her splendid novels "Rheinlandstoechter" ("Daughters of the Rhein"), "Das schlafende Heer" '('The sleeping army") and "Absolve te."
Gabriele Reuter treated in her novels "Aus guter Familie" ("Of good family"), "Frau Bürgelin und ihre Söhne," "Ellen von der Weiden," and "Liselotte von Reckling" various phases of the woman's question. In the first book she protests against
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