Published one year before Musil's Mann ohne Eigenschaften and three years prior to Roth's Radetzkymarsch, Martha Karlweis's Ein österreichischer Don Juan might be said to inaugurate a tradition of novels that chronicle the demise of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the attendant rise of anxieties regarding nostalgia, illusion, heritage and both national and personal identities. This article demonstrates how the novel contributes a specifically female viewpoint to this tradition. By drawing on the historical figure of Mary Vetsera and stereotypical images of women popularized in fin-de-siècle literature, Karlweis criticizes the hierarchical order and social expectations that serve to uphold male hegemony, allowing her to expose the misogyny at the heart of the society she depicts.