Research has shown that the historical novels after 1918 are more concerned with the present than with the past. They reflect the political and social upheavals as well as the contemporaneous changes in the First Republic of Austria. This volume presents historical novels by Austrian women authors who have so far either received marginal treatment or been overlooked altogether, but whose literary work was met with great resonance in their time. Apart from literary works, biographical portraits of the generation of female authors who flourished during the First and Second Republic are delineated, as well as - through new analyses of works - the history of Austrian literature. The discourse of femininity in the respective historical transformations also plays an important role in this presentation.