bavarikon4UDescription
Lydia Danöfen (after 1906-?) is the pseudonym used by Lydia Mauser, the wife of a Munich doctor, for her fictional works. Nothing is known about her life. She published just three books: a novella and two novels. Her novella with numerous marginalia is in the poet Paul Heyse's estate (1830-1914). Albert Langen's 1912 brochure praises Danöfen's "scarcity of form, elegance of style, wit, lack of sentimentality, mental agility, seriousness without heaviness, depth and gloom". The Munich authors Georg Queri (1879-1919) and Ludwig Thoma (1867-1921) include Danöfen in their "Bayernbuch. 100 bayrische Autoren eines Jahrtausends" (1913) as one of five female authors – along with Emma Haushofer-Merk (1854-1925), Anna Croissant-Rust (1860-1943), Dora Stieler (1875-1957), Lena Christ (1881-1920) and Clara Hätzlerin (c. 1430-after 1476). Her first major work, the novella "Estella", appeared in 1907. In it Danöfen tells the story of Estella Brand, the beautiful niece of a rich privateer, and the Hungarian painter Leo Makassy. During a study visit to the country, Makassy meets the very young beauty and is commissioned to paint a portrait of her. A destructive love soon develops that threatens to drag Estella into the abyss. Datum: 2019
Author
Peter Czoik