The Education of Fanny Lewald is the autobiography of the most popular and prolific German woman writer of her period (1811-1889). The author of more than fifty books of fiction, travel memoirs, and articles about current events, Lewald was a friend or acquaintance of many of the prominent intellectual, artistic, and political figures of nineteenth-century Europe. Her autobiography is clearly and engagingly written. We see her developing from the bright, oldest child of a middle-class Jewish family in East Prussia into a successful writer and financially independent woman. And we see her struggles with a patriarchal society along the way.

Lewald (1811-1889), the best-selling German woman writer in the nineteenth century, proved a keen and perceptive observer of the social, artistic, and political life of her times, of which these Recollections offer an excellent example. Written from a woman's perspective, this firsthand account of the revolutions in both Germany and France must be considered a unique document. It is further enhanced by her detailed description of the Frankfurt Parliament and her relationships with many of the prominent politicians and thinkers of that eventful period.