EBNER-ESCHENBACH, MARIE, FREIFRAU VON (183o 1916), Austrian novelist, was born at Zdislavic in Moravia, on Sept. 13, 183o, the daughter of a Count Dubsky. She lost her mother in early infancy, but received a careful intellectual train ing from two stepmothers. In 1848 she married the Austrian captain, and subsequent field-marshal, Moritz von Ebner-Eschen bach, and resided first at Vienna, then at Klosterbruck, where her husband had a military charge, and after 1860 again at Vienna. Her first essay was with the drama Maria Stuart in Schottland, which P. E. Devrient produced at the Karlsruhe theatre in 1860, but she found her true sphere in narrative. Commencing with Die Prinzessin von Banalien (1872), she graphically depicts in Boiena (1876, 4th ed. 1899) and Das Gemeindekind (1887, 4th ed. 1900) the surroundings of her Moravian home, and in Lotti, die Uhrmacherin (1883, 4th ed. 1900), Zwei Comtessen (1885, 5th ed. 1898; Eng. trans. 1893), Unsiihnbar (189o, 5th ed. 1900) and Glaubenslos? (1893) the life of the Austrian aristocracy in town and country. Later books are Neue Erzdhlungen (1881, 3rd ed. 1894), Apliorismen (188o, 4th ed. 1895), Parabeln, Meirclien and Gediclite (2nd ed. 1892), Aus Spdtherbsttagen (' 9o') and Agave (1903) . Frau von Ebner-Eschenbach's incisive wit and masterly character-drawing give her a foremost place among the German writers of her time. She died in Vienna on March 12, 1916.
See A. Bettelheim, "Marie von Ebner Eschenbach and Julius Roden berg," Deutsche Rundschau. Jahrg. 46, pp. 6,23 (Berlin, 192o) ; A. Bettelheim, Marie von Ebner Eschenbach's Wirken and Vermdchtnis (Leipzig, 192o) .