Marianne Ehrmann

The Swiss-born writer Marianne Ehrmann, who lived and worked in Vienna, Strasbourg, and Stuttgart, initially pursued an acting career. Later, as a fiction writer, Ehrmann made educating women her primary goal. In this biography, Professor Madland follows this fascinating woman's life story, emphasizing her unique situation as editor of two women's journals. Ehrmann's opinionated wit and experience in the public sphere as an eighteenth-century working woman gave her a distinctive voice to enliven contemporary gender debates. She argues that reason and emotion should not exist in separate spheres, and that men and women should share both so that they may become better persons.