This first book-length biography with discussions of select writings by Luise Buchner (1821-1877) draws on her commentary of events available in letters and writings. A close reading of Buchner's fictional writings reveals that she both entertained and educated her readers. Her pedagogical messages correspond to ideas she promoted in her work on the -woman question-. This in-depth study properly situates her in the changing cultural climate and socio-political developments that led to unification of the German states in 1871. Buchner tested and revised her thoughts on the -woman question- in the course of her practical work as a co-founder of local women's associations and as a member of two competing -national- bourgeois women's organizations. Her -voice- and temperament, as reflected in letters and articles not consulted by previous biographers, lead to surprising discoveries about a single woman whose life had more to offer than the narrowly prescribed roles assigned to middle-class women of her day."