ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the romance E. Marlitt's Goldelse as well as Gabriele Reuter's popular novel Liselotte von Reckling. Particular attention will be given to the theme of Entsagung, a theme embraced by the romance which is problematized in women's novels around the turn of the twentieth century. In the romance, renunciation is a form of empowerment, the process through which the protagonist achieves autonomy and self-knowledge, and begins to engage in useful social activity. There, renunciation is also a temporary state: the protagonists reap the reward for their willingness to renounce their love when they eventually declare their affection for one another and embrace. In the nineteenth-century sentimental novel, of which E. Marlitt's Goldelse is an excellent example, physical weakness can result in inner strength of character which enables a protagonist such as Else to withstand the hostility of those around her. Susanne Clark refers to the sentimental novel as characterized by an aesthetic of commitment.
