One year in high school we studied "trivial literature" in our German class. It was a fashionable topic in those years, but we mostly regarded it as a blatant attempt to wean us off the likes of Karl May or Marie Louise Fischer. I never would have known about Marlitt if it had not been for this class.
But once I started, I realised that there is trash and then there's trash. Marlitt is first-grade trash, you know that the plots are hackneyed, the style flowery and contrived, and yet – you stick with it and you enjoy it. Hence the "Guilty pleasures": you know it's bad, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.
And with Marlitt you get a glimpse into the mindset of 19th century German women and their world that you won't find elsewhere. Of course these are romances, but there is an amazing amount of social and even political commentary going on. Some of it looks dated or misguided to us now, but I always found it striking how individual these heroines are, that they always have their own minds even if they are not allowed to act on their inclinations and opinions. Convention rules that they should end up married, but in this particular case you close the book knowing that this woman is vastly superior to her husband intellectually and morally and you're glad you live in a different age. ( )