Erna Juel-Hansen's life cannot be separated from her literary work. The majority of her writing consists of lectures, articles, essays, and short stories published in magazines and newspapers. Her seven novels paint a vivid portrait of the women of her time, and, by reflection, of herself, as a social reformer and feminist visionary. Pil Dahlerup's published doctoral dissertation Det Moderne Gennembruds Kvinder (Women of the Modern Breakthrough, 1984) singles out Juel-Hansen as one of the leading women writers of her generation and aptly characterizes her as "det hele menneske" (the whole human being).

Erna Emilie Louise Vilhelmine Drachmann was born in Copenhagen on 5 March 1845, the oldest daughter of Andreas Georg Drachmann, a doctor, and his first wife, Vilhelmine Marie Stæhr. Her brother, writer Holger Drachmann, was born a year and a half later. Vilhelmine Stæhr, Erna Drachmann's mother, gave birth to five children and died...