User:Sole-of-Air/Wanda von Sacher-Masoch

Angelika Aurora Rümelin (born 14 March 1845 in Graz – possibly spring 1933 in Paris (some sources state 1906, and 1917)) also known under the pseudonyms Wanda von Sacher-Masoch, Wanda von Dunajew and D. Dolorès, was an Austrian writer and translator.

Childhood and youth
Angelika Rümelin grew up in Graz as the daughter of Marie Rümelin (née Schuber) and Wilhelm Rümelin, an official orginating from an old Württembergian noble family. At the age of fifteen her parents separated and she fell into poverty. After graduating from a sewing school, she made a living by taking laundry and sewing jobs and selling tobacco and soda.

Partners and children
An intensive correspondence with the then already respected writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, which she began in 1871 under the pseudonym Wanda von Dunajew (after the protagonist in Sacher-Masoch's novel Venus in Furs), culminated in their marriage in 1873. The relationship, which produced three children, was difficult, being additionally burdened by their precarious financial situation as well as their frequent changes of residence (Bruck an der Mur, Budapest, Graz, Leipzig and Wien). The Sacher-Masochs separated in 1883 and divorced in 1886. Wanda von Sacher-Masoch lived with her lover Armand or Jacques Saint-Cère (i.e. Armand Rosenthal, 1855–1898) in France from 1882 to 1888, then for a few years in La Neuveville (Switzerland) and at different addresses in Paris.

Career as a writer and translator
Before her first independent publication, ''Der Roman einer tugendhaften Frau. Ein Gegenstück zur ,geschiedenen Frau‘ von Sacher-Masoch'' (The Novel of a Virtuous Woman. A counterpart to the 'divorced frau' von Sacher-Masoch) (1873), Wanda von Sacher-Masoch had already published small feuilletons and short stories in magazines such as the "Neue Pester Journal", "Auf der Höhe. International Revue" or in Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's "Belletristische Blätter". 14 of her 35 short stories were published in magazines. As can be seen from the titles of some of her other publications (Echter Hermelin. Geschichten aus der vornehmen Welt (Real Ermine. Stories from the noble world), 1879; Die Damen im Pelz (The Ladies in Furs), 1881), she repeatedly made references to her husband's works, some of which she translated into French after their divorce. Her memoirs went into several editions and were translated into Bulgarian, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian. She responded to Carl Felix von Schlichtegrolls harsh criticism of them with the addendum Masochismus und Masochisten (Masochism and Masochists) (1908).

No reliable information is available for the period after 1909.

Belletristic Literature

 * Der Roman einer tugendhaften Frau. Ein Gegenstück zur "geschiedenen Frau" von Sacher-Masoch. Bohemia, Prag 1873.
 * Echter Hermelin. Geschichten aus der vornehmen Welt. Frobeen, Bern 1879.
 * Die Damen im Pelz. Geschichten. E. L. Morgenstern, Leipzig 1882.
 * Meine Lebensbeichte. Memoiren. Schuster & Loeffler, Berlin/Leipzig 1906, also
 * Masochismus und Masochisten. Nachtrag zur Lebensbeichte. Hermann Seemann, Berlin/Leipzig 1908.

From French

 * Georges Ohnet: Das Recht des Kindes. Roman in zwei Bänden (translation of Le Droit de l'enfant) (1894).

Into French

 * Leopold von Sacher-Masoch: L’Amour cruel à travers les ages. La czarine noire et autres contes sur la flagellation (1907, nine short stories)
 * Leopold von Sacher-Masoch: L’Amour cruel à travers les ages. La pantoufle de Sapho et autres contes (1907, nine short stories)
 * Leopold von Sacher-Masoch: La jalousie d’une impératrice (1908, four novellas)