Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 9781541095953 Books
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Herland is a utopian novel from 1915, written by feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The book describes an isolated society composed entirely of women, who reproduce via parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction). The result is an ideal social order free of war, conflict, and domination. It first appeared as a serial in The Forerunner, a magazine edited and written by Gilman between 1909 and 1916. The book is the middle volume in her utopian trilogy; it was preceded by Moving the Mountain (1911), and followed with a sequel, With Her in Ourland (1916). It was not published in book form until 1979.
Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 9781541095953 Books
Hard on the heels of finishing the course on utopias and dystopias, I decided to tackle Herland, a book I'd been intending to read for decades. To my delight it wasn't nearly as earnest and didactic as I would have expected a feminist utopia of the early 20th to be. Rather it was gently humorous and even-handed, suggesting that it is not so much a utopian vision, but a suggestion that in the relations between the sexes we can do a whole lot better without going to extremes.The story has a classic utopian structure of outsiders "discovering" a previously unknown country where everyone lives in peace and prosperity. Three men, who represent specific types, hear about this land of women and resolve to find it. There's the narrator, Van, who is a social scientist, and who approaches women as equals, Southern gentleman, Jeff, who puts women on pedestals, and the "man's man" (read jerk) Terry, whose increasing anger and frustration at not being able to "master" these women leads to an intolerable act of violence.
Gilman's utopian vision is classic also in the sense that the country is far from perfect, and that much of the second half of the book is taken up with the romance between Van, and Ellador, one of the women of Herland, suggests that in the end, utopia is finding someone who completes you, challenges you, supports you, and who is as interested in you and your world as you are in theirs.
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Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 9781541095953 Books Reviews
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was arguably the most important American author of the women's movement in the early 20th-century. In addition to editing a newspaper, "The Forerunner," she wrote "Women and Economics," one of the first studies of the role of women in the economic system. Gilman also wrote a number of utopias "Moving the Mountain" in 1911, "With Her in Ourland" (1916), and her best-known, "Herstory" in 1915. In "Herstory" Gilman creates a homosocial (one-sex) utopian society made up entirely of women in which the culture, political system, and families are the result of having women as the basis (instead of merely stemming from the absence of men). However, while other American utopian novels, most notably Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward 2000-1888," were standard reading for decades, Gilman's "Herland" was pretty much forgotten until it was rediscovered in the 1970s. Even after four decades Gilman's satire was seen as still speaking to the conditions faced by American women.
Following the conceit first used by Sir Thomas More in writing his "Utopia," Gilman's "Herstory" tells of three American explorers (male, of course), stumbling upon an all-female society in an isolated mountain valley in a land far away on the even of the first World War. Since they find this strange land to be civilized the explorers are convinced there must be some men hiding someplace, and set out to find them. As they search high and low for the male of the species they learn about the history of the country, the religion of motherhood, and the other unique customs, while trying to seduce its inhabitants. Many generations earlier the women had found themselves separated from the human race, with the men dying off. The society evolved, organizing itself around raising children and living in harmony with their surroundings. In the end, the three mail visitors end up falling in love with three of the women and are essentially converted as naturalized aliens.
"Herstory" is less science fiction than many of the utopian novels written during this period, and clearly its primary value is in terms of its provocative commentary on gender roles in the United States in the early 20th-century. Not surprisingly, Gilman questions the roles assumed by men and women in the "bi-sexual" society by showing the relative perfection achieved in Herland with its uni-sexual society. What Gilman sidesteps, of course, are the issues of sexuality the women of "Herstory" are asexual beings, although they are capable of parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction). Also, by talking about these women as being descended from good Aryan stock she raises the specter of racism as well. But clearly Gilman's purpose is to provide a critique of the social order of the day, using humor as a way to mask her telling barbs and to provide her unorthodox views of gender roles, motherhood, individuality, privacy, and other issues. Then there are the parts where the inhabitants of "Herstory" are amused and horrified to learn about the conventional aspects of courtship, marriage, families, warfare, labor relations and even animal husbandry in the "real" world.
Because "Herland" is essentially a novella, running only 124 pages in this unabridged Dover Thrift Edition, it is fairly easy to work it into a class looking at 20th century American utopian literature or the women's movement. In many ways, although it is not as well written, "Herland" is a much more provocative critique of women in American society than Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" or Marge Piercy's "Woman on the Edge of Time." "Herstory" also stands out because it is a true utopian novel, written at a time when the dystopian emphasis was about to redefine the genre of utopian literature.
I bought this book for my granddaughter. I read this book in the 80s and it still haunts my memory. A truly unique story of outrageous possibilities that applies even today. It is thought provoking, even more so in our "modern" times.
In my quest to read or reread some of the classic books, my second attempt was this book. I found it to be very interesting. The premise, of a isolated country comprising totally of women, was thought provoking. And that these three men found it, along with their reactions to life in Herland, was sad, funny, eye-opening, and ultimately tragic in some regards.
The three men were quite different in their reactions, expectations, and willingness (or unwillingness) to acclimate to this land.
Written in 1915, Charlotte Gilman was able to make this book almost timeless.
It was a good book and a good read. Now onto my next classic book.
Of course one has to have a moment of suspension of belief to accept the concept of their motherhood in a society without men, but what a great work on how men view women, their supposed adoration for the 'weaker' sex, yet at the same time, their disgust for the very ideal of women they created. Would a society of only women evolve into a near perfect civilization which strives together for the benefit of the whole, that evolve so they think in terms of 'we' instead of 'I'? A national identity so intuned, so benevolent that every thought of every person was the advancement of every generation to reach a higher 'goodness'. The creation of a perfect culture which has conquered almost every problem faced by modern society, would a community of women separated from any contact with men be able to create that...interesting concept and fascinating reading when put in a fictional story of three men, one a macho blockhead, another a soft idealist and finally the anthropologist who stands as the man in the middle. How would these three very different men survive in such an accomplished society? Great story. Word of warning, there is an abrupt ending, leading of course into a sequel, so prepare oneself for that. Also, it is helpful to remember this was written by a woman who died in the 1930s. Society was indeed different then than now, but surprisingly not as much as one would think.
Hard on the heels of finishing the course on utopias and dystopias, I decided to tackle Herland, a book I'd been intending to read for decades. To my delight it wasn't nearly as earnest and didactic as I would have expected a feminist utopia of the early 20th to be. Rather it was gently humorous and even-handed, suggesting that it is not so much a utopian vision, but a suggestion that in the relations between the sexes we can do a whole lot better without going to extremes.
The story has a classic utopian structure of outsiders "discovering" a previously unknown country where everyone lives in peace and prosperity. Three men, who represent specific types, hear about this land of women and resolve to find it. There's the narrator, Van, who is a social scientist, and who approaches women as equals, Southern gentleman, Jeff, who puts women on pedestals, and the "man's man" (read jerk) Terry, whose increasing anger and frustration at not being able to "master" these women leads to an intolerable act of violence.
Gilman's utopian vision is classic also in the sense that the country is far from perfect, and that much of the second half of the book is taken up with the romance between Van, and Ellador, one of the women of Herland, suggests that in the end, utopia is finding someone who completes you, challenges you, supports you, and who is as interested in you and your world as you are in theirs.
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