This portrayal of Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) is based on published and unpublished sources. Like many women novelists of her time -- particularly because she was an aristocrat -- she had to overcome various obstacles on the part of her family who tried to prevent her from embarking on a professional career. Persistence combined with an outstanding ability for story-telling led to her ultimately becoming Austria s most prominent woman writer of the nineteenth century. The dissertation which formed the basis of this biography was awarded the Austrian Cultural Institute s prize for best dissertation in Austrian Studies in 1995.