All Reviews by P. Crowley

The Woman Who Did

by Grant Allen

This book is extremely interesting as it was published in 1895 and many of the feminist ideas were seemingly new in 1975. Turns out not to be so.

In reading the book you want to feel good about Herminia because she is so very dedicated to her beliefs. But her dedication comes at a great personal cost to her and eventually she is rejected by everyone, even her daughter. The result for me was quite far from what the author intended in that the costs were far greater than anyone could expect to suffer.

So while you want to cheer the heroine on, you feel sorry for her and are left thinking that she should have compromised her values to let the least bit of happiness into her life. Hardly a ringing endorsement of feminist values.

There are some parts of the book that are quite a bit over the top in terms of relations between men and women, especially with the idea of marriage as slavery. All in all, if the author was trying to promote some feminist cause I would say he failed.