2 h 44 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 2 h 44 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does it cost to love a woman when family, marriage and reputation leave no place for that love?
In The Joy and Sorrow of a Woman's Love for a Woman, Emilie Knopf places love between two women within the strict rules of nineteenth-century society. Marriage and family duty shape the roles women can hold. Private feeling presses against public expectations, and loving openly carries consequences.
Joy comes from being understood and chosen. Yet this is a world where love between women must stay hidden, with few public names and little protection. Knopf's novel brings intimate feeling into conflict with family, neighbours and custom, asking what room remains for love when reputation governs so much.
What you’ll discover
- Love beyond accepted roles Explore a bond between women that society's narrow expectations cannot comfortably contain.
- The joy of being chosen Find the warmth of being understood beside the sorrow that forbidden love brings.
- A world of limits Enter a society where marriage, family duty and reputation weigh on women's lives.
- Choices under pressure Consider what choices about love mean when family, neighbours and custom press against them.
- Private feeling, public rules Discover a literary romance that places women's intimate bonds against the demands of reputation.
Who will love it
Readers who love period settings with ball gowns, Rhine castles and Italian palazzos will enjoy this novel, as will those curious about nineteenth-century women writing of love between women.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A warning opens into tenderness
- Edita becomes the center of love
- A rose exposes divided desire
- Jealousy enters the circle of pleasure
- Felicita separates affection from bought favors
- Desire can silence careful judgment
- New desire strains Felicita's promises
- Love faces jealousy and competing voices
Who’s who
- FelicitaA wealthy young painter who tells the story and loves only beautiful, graceful women, yet cannot keep from admiring others.
- EditaA witty, light-haired heiress from a castle on the Rhine who wants Felicita's faithful love and teaches her through teasing.
- Comtesse EugenieA Parisian who has long admired Felicita and tempts her at the seaside with flowers, kisses and a bold confession.
- The MarchesaA proud Italian aristocrat who hosts secret evenings and seeks love beyond the usual rules of her rank.
- AnninaA young German woman, the Marchesa's companion and favorite, who shares her palazzo and her devotion.
- CorniA beautiful courtesan of good birth whose sad story wins the Marchesa's sympathy and her help.
- ElisabethA blond society lady who woos Felicita with fiery glances and asks to be loved in return.
- StephaniA professor's wife who loves one woman faithfully and faces a hard choice from her husband.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Joy and Sorrow of a Woman's Love for a Woman in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Joy and Sorrow of a Woman's Love for a Woman
by Emilie Knopf
A wealthy young painter falls for a masked stranger at a ball, and her loves lead from the Rhine to Italy.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read16 languages
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In short
What happens when a rich young painter looks across a masked ball and sees the woman she has dreamed of all her life? That scene begins Felicita's love for Edita in The Joy and Sorrow of a Woman's Love for a Woman, a novel by Emilie Knopf.
The Joy and Sorrow of a Woman's Love for a Woman at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 45 min1 h 20 min fast, 2 h slow
- Length
- 24,500 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A preface that warns while it admires
The book opens with the author speaking in her own voice. She says that in a big city, too much excitement and the hunt for pleasure produce strange excesses. She claims that love between women has spread among fashionable ladies to an almost unbelievable extent.
Then her tone changes. She describes a famous painting of the poet Sappho in her youthful beauty, with a lyre in her hand and admiring crowds around her. The author mourns that Sappho's writings were lost and blames envious monks. Next she states her purpose. She wants to show how good morals, happiness and honor are put at risk when one woman exploits a friendship as a means to an end.
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Which edition is right for me
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 1 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Knopf, Emilie. The Joy and Sorrow of a Woman's Love for a Woman. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-joy-and-sorrow-of-a-womans-love-for-a-woman.
Knopf, E. (2026). The joy and sorrow of a woman's love for a woman. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-joy-and-sorrow-of-a-womans-love-for-a-woman
Knopf, Emilie. The Joy and Sorrow of a Woman's Love for a Woman. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-joy-and-sorrow-of-a-womans-love-for-a-woman.
@book{knopf2026joy,
author = {Knopf, Emilie},
title = {The Joy and Sorrow of a Woman's Love for a Woman},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-joy-and-sorrow-of-a-womans-love-for-a-woman}
}
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What is The Joy and Sorrow of a Woman's Love for a Woman about?
It follows Felicita, a wealthy painter who loves beautiful women. She meets Edita at a masked ball, and her love is tested by new temptations in the city, at the seaside and in Italy.
Who are Felicita and Edita?
Felicita is the narrator, a young artist from a rich family. Edita is a witty heiress from a castle on the Rhine, who becomes her closest companion and her love.
Why does the author call the book a warning?
In her preface, Emilie Knopf says she wants to show how morals, happiness and honor are put at risk when a friendship between women is exploited. She calls the book a warning against aberrations in women's love.
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