Bad Mothers and Good Virgins: Gender, Identity, and Maternity in the Novels of E. Marlitt

This article examines the effects of glorifying virgin caregivers at the expense of biological mothers in two novels of the popular nineteenth-century author E. Marlitt: The Old Maid’s Secret (1871; Das Geheimnis der alten Mamsell, 1867) and The Second Wife (Die zweite Frau, 1874). It argues that while Marlitt is known for her critique of class prejudice and religious hypocrisy, her works also stress the need for female education and complicate an ideologically potent belief in maternal self-sacrifice.