popularity among male literary establishments, she did have a strong network of women on whom she relied to write about female relations. Her works drew attention to the importance of female friends in her life. Sophie dedicated her first two volumes of poetry (1781; 1785) to women friends. She wrote a love poem for fellow actress, Catharina Felicitas Abt, whom Albrecht never met and who had recently died. The poem was entitled An dem Grabe der Madame Abt in Göttingen den 19ten August 1784 (At the grave of Madame Abt in Göttingen the 19th of August 1784). Sophie Albrecht wrote about love, but not in its tranquility. Ruth P. Dawson describes Sophie saying, "Sophie Albrecht glorified love but could find no way to embed it in positive social narratives, connecting it instead directly and indirectly with death, and particularly, suicide". Her work is often described as melancholy with sorrow or regret as underlying themes. Another analysis of Sophie Albrecht's works by Mary Helen Dupree explains: "she channels her experience of loss and death into opportunities for self-exploration, resistance to social norms, and artistic productivity." However, by 1792 Sophie Albrecht had stopped writing poetry. Prose Later in life Sophie a wrote Gothic horror novel about ghosts and mystery. Albrecht's novel, Das höfliche Gespenst (The Polite Ghost), was published on three separate occasions under three different names — Legenden (Legends) (1797), Das höfliche Gespenst (The Polite Ghost), and Ida von Duba, das Mädchen im Walde; eine romantische Geschichte aus den grauenvollen Tagen der Vorwelt (Ida von Duba, the Girl in the Forest; a Romantic Story from the Dreadful Days of the Past) (1805). The Polite Ghost told a story about what happens after the war ends and the hero is dead, leaving behind a widow, who is haunted by a ghost. The nature of the relationship between the two characters — Ida and Katharine — has led many to believe the text is in part about same-sex attraction. In 1808, Albrecht published Romantische Dichtungen aus der ältern christlichen Kirche (Romantic Literature from the Early Christian Church); unlike The Polite Ghost, it did not display Gothic themes. Later life Albrecht used writing as a source of income after her divorce, although her ex-husband did help sustain her until his death from typhus in 1814. She spent the next quarter century in poverty, and at the age of 80 had begun writing cookbooks to