A Reunion of Ghosts. Judith Mitchell Claire

“I’m finally over romanticism,” she tells the wall nearest her dressing table. “From here on, it’s nothing but the life of the mind.” The life of the mind, clenched teeth, headaches, and grim self-pleasure. She’s a modern woman.

      A few weeks later—talk of coincidences—Breslau University begins accepting women.

      Is there a catch? Of course there’s a catch. Women may attend classes only as nonmatriculating auditors. But that’s better than nothing, and Iris immediately takes and passes the rigorous admission exam designed for the women alone. She proceeds to audit classes year after year. It’s 1896, ’97, ’98. She’s twenty-five, she’s twenty-six, she’s twenty-seven …