1 - An Anglophile Fräulein and Her Epistolary Emotions: Die Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim (1771)

Summary

“Meinen Sie nicht, es gäbe der Seymours auch heute noch?”

—Lotte in Wie sich das fügt! by J. I. E. Wallenrodt

[Don't you think there are still some Seymours around today?]

THE FIRST PUBLICATION that should stand on the shelf dedicated to great books around 1800 is Sophie von La Roche's epistolary novel, Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim (The History of Lady Sophie Sternheim), which is the earliest of the six novels discussed in this book. As discussed in subsequent chapters, La Roche's publication casts a traceable shadow on German literature under the rubric of the novel of emotion. La Roche is both an importer of exciting literary developments from the fiction of England and France and an innovator constructing a hybrid discourse of human emotion. This engaging 1771 novel relates the story of its title character, a chaste and principled European heroine named Fräulein Sophie von Sternheim, whose journey to emotional maturity is paralleled by the novelist's journey to authority (as is also the case for Caroline von Wolzogen's heroine Agnes). While the protagonist encounters new challenges and adventures, the author develops and illustrates a concept of optimal female education that strikes a gender balance between masculine and feminine norms. The novel engages its public through an epistolary depiction of the main character's developing agency. As the protagonist Sophie comes to terms with her mixed European heritage, the author confronts the German epistolary novel's European legacy and creates an innovative, hybrid discourse capable of conveying profound yet contradictory emotions. Finally, as the fictional character negotiates her role in the community, the author explicates her philosophy on philanthropy, which developed into a paramount issue for her oeuvre.

The compelling romantic plot that connects these themes narrates the heroine's love story. Yet I argue that this canon-worthy novel offers more than the presentation of a romantic love and marriage plot, as evidenced by the novel's narrative distribution. The work consists of two volumes: the first volume recounts Sophie's backstory (for example, about her parents, youth, and education) and presents her dreams for an advantageous and happy marriage as well as the potential impediments to these dreams. In the second volume, the heroine adopts the persona of Madame Leidens, a woman far beyond this stage in life.