This portrayal of Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) is based on published and unpublished sources.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.