Quick Facts
Biography
E. Marlitt is the pseudonym of Eugenie John (December 5, 1825 – 1887), a popular German novelist.
Biography
She was born at Arnstadt. Her father was a portrait painter; her patroness was the Princess of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, who adopted her in 1841 and sent her to Vienna to study music for three years on account of her fine voice.
She became deaf, and returned to Sondershausen, living for 11 years at court as a companion to her patroness. Her correspondents were struck with her attractive style, and encouraged her to write novels. For this purpose, she returned to Arnstadt in 1863, and there began her career as a novelist.
Works
- Die zwölf Apostel (1865) This is her first novel. It appeared in the Leipzig Gartenlaube.
- Goldelse (1866) This novel marked the beginning of her celebrity, its readers attracted by its graphic and poetic delineations of German life.
- Blaubart (1866)
- Das Geheimnis der alten Mamsell (1868)
- Thüringer Erzählungen (1869)
- Reichsgräfin Gisela (1870)
- Heideprinzeßchen (1872)
- Die zweite Frau (1874)
These novels were made available in English translations by Annis Lee Wister of Philadelphia. Marlitt's collected works appeared in 10 volumes (Leipzig, 1888–90; second edition, 1891-94).
Marlitt published several works in the German weekly magazine Die Gartenlaube (such as Reichsgräfin Gisela in 1869).