[1][2] The Backfischroman is usually told from a first-person perspective, with the main character being an adolescent girl of middle or higher class upbringing.
She tends to be an open and friendly person, who pursues her own interests independently of society's norms and later after a learning process makes her own free decision to accept the role for a woman as wife and mother.
Typical well known examples are Emmy von Rhoden's Der Trotzkopf (1885) and Clementine Helm's Backfischchens Leiden und Freuden (1863).
The terms Backfischroman and Backfischliteratur are not applied to girl literature from the middle of the 20th century onwards, which features an expanded range of topics and is less focused on traditional roles for women.
[3][4] Der Trotzkopf has been translated into English twice, once under the title An Obstinate Maid (1898) by Mary E. Ireland and once as Taming a Tomboy (1898), likely by the Belgian-born naturalist and free-thought advocate Felix Leopold Oswald.