author
Jolanthe Marès
1868–1945
Known for sharply observed novels about urban life, social convention, and desire, this German writer reached a wide readership in the early 20th century. Her best-known book, Lillis Ehe, was popular enough to inspire Ernst Lubitsch's 1924 film Three Women.
1 Audiobook
Begierde : Ein Berliner Roman
by Jolanthe Marès
About the author
Born in Berlin in 1868, Jolanthe Marès was the pen name of Selma Reichel. She wrote a long series of novels between 1914 and 1934, often focused on relationships, respectability, and the pressures of modern city life.
Her most successful work was Lillis Ehe, which reportedly reached a large circulation soon after publication and later became the basis for Ernst Lubitsch's film Three Women. Catalog records and biographical reference sources also connect her with several name variants, including Iolanthe Marès and Yolande Maree.
Her books were widely read in their time, but her work later fell out of circulation; reference sources note that her writings were placed on the Nazi regime's 1938 list of banned or undesirable literature. Although some details of her later life are not consistently documented across sources, library and authority records identify her as having died in 1945.