Herland (Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in 1860 and died by suicide in 1935 because she was suffering from breast cancer. Gilman was radical and progressive for her time in her advocacy of women's rights, so it's particularly sad to see her so blinded by the racism of the day. I've quit reading other books (most recently, "You Can't Go Home Again") because of racist language and attitudes. It's impossible to rate a book outside of the time it's being read; "that was her world at the time she wrote this" just doesn't cut it for me, though it's sadly true-- that was her world."Herland" was published in 1915; a fantasy-adventure story but heavy on philosophical discussion, it follows three young men of the day who happen upon a country inhabited only by females.Their ability to procreate is a reach at best (and one reason why this couldn't even be considered a sci-fi novel, as it doesn't even attempt to explain how this might be achieved through medical advances), but it's a necessary little hurdle Gilman had to address. Having dismissed that particularly pesky elephant in the room, she gets on with how much better Herland is with women in charge: they're smart, kind, patient (infinitely so), innovative, cooperative, non-competitive... You get the picture. (FYI, I'm a female reviewer... so no gender bias at work here.)It's an ideal world, this Herland. But Gilman gives herself a lot of outs by not getting into the nitty gritty of things: they have machines that enable them to move quickly around the country (cars?) yet there's no mention of the manufacturing industry necessary to make such machines, nor the mining nor other production processes needed to get the materials for the manufacturing in the first place. Usually this requires nasty, uncomfortable labor which can sometimes maim or kill someone. And *those* processes are often at the heart of someone's discontent: who decides who will have those jobs? In Herland the women share and rotate their jobs, though some are specialties.Gilman neatly skips other hard issues: this magical country always seems to have the perfect weather for the food they grow. In two thousand years, haven't they ever experienced a drought? Catastrophic flooding? A fire caused by lightning? What did this idyllic country do? How did the women not come apart in disagreement about how such natural disasters were handled (or not handled)?It's a fantasy, to be sure. But the best fantasies tackle these difficult issues, which only add to their drama and believability.Had Gilman managed those things, this book might have become a classic. But by keeping her focus on the narrow issue of how much better things would be if women were left alone by men, she missed an amazing opportunity to reach readers more than 100 years after writing the book.

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.

Es muy grande comparado con la v.o. Aunque para el precio esta muy bien. Es para un regalo.

Para apreciar mejor esta obra hay que considerar que fue escrita hace más de 100 años, cuando la primera ola del feminismo apenas estaba dando derecho al voto.Se trata de tres hombres descubren una región aislada del mundo exterior, habitada únicamente por mujeres desde hace (aproximadamente) 2000 años. El protagonista (sociólogo) narra sus experiencias y las de sus dos muy diferentes amigos (un Artista y el otro un Seductor empedernido) en una Utopía femenina en donde todo gira alrededor del concepto de Maternidad.Más que novela de aventuras (pues no hay mucha acción) es un ensayo de ciencia ficción (pricipalmente ciencias sociales, aunque con toques de ciencias biológicas) que describe varios aspectos de la sociedad (educación, familia, religión, etc.) tal y como podrían desarrollarse en un ambiente que desde hace milenios no tiene conceptos como "Padre de familia", "ama de casa", "hogar", "noviazgo", "matrimonio" e incluso conceptos como "mascota" o "educación infantil", a los que nosotros (a través del protagonista) estamos acostumbrados.Quien haya visto la película de la  Mujer Maravilla  notará también algunas semejanzas en ciertos puntos.Es recomendable leer primero la obra en sí, e inmediatamente después la biografía de la autora que está al principio, para entender mejor las ideas con las que desarrolló la novela. El libro en sí tiene la fuente legible pero relativamente pequeña, así que a pesar de no ser muy grueso tiene contenido para rato. Sobra decir que está en Inglés.Muy recomendado para lectores de Ciencia Ficción que gusten de temas Sociológicos y de Historia Alterna (utopías y distopías) y que no les moleste mucho la falta de acción y aventura, así como quien quiera conocer una novela feminista "de las de antes". Mujer Maravilla

Naive and not that interesting from a feminist perspective. It is interesting to read because it is a women-utopia, but that is it.

TO BE READ BY ALL US MEN. ON AN INTERMITTENT REPEAT BASIS. "HERLAND' AFFORDS US OPPORTUNITY TO RECOGNISE, YET AGAIN, THAT WE ARE CAPABLE OF GROWING UP; THAT WE DON'T REALLY NEED TO INVEST ALL OUR ENERGIES IN THEFT/VIOLENCE/GREED/EXCLUSION/VIOLENCE AND BLOODSHED.GILMAN SHOWS US THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO ORDER OUR LIVES IN A MORE INCLUSIVE, POSITIVE, USEFUL, HAPPY WAY. THE NATURAL LIGHT WE ALL POSSESS, CAN COME 'FRONT AND CENTRE'; THE GREAT DOMINANT CLOUDS OF DARKNESS CAN BE SHIFTED TO THE MARGINS.WOMEN HAVE MUCH TO TEACH US; PRINCIPALLY HOW TO BEHAVE LIKE SENSIBLE, RESPONSIBLE HUMAN BEINGS.WHAT GILMAN DID NOT HAVE IN EARLY 1900s WAS THE INTERNET/ WORLD-WIDE/ INSTANTANEOUS COMMUNICATION. WE DO. AS A RESULT, THE NEXT FEW GENERATIONS, THROUGH HUGE EXTENSION OF 'INCLUSIVE NETWORKING', WILL INEVITABLY SEE MUCH MOVEMENT IN THE 'COMMON SENSE' HUMANE DIRECTIONS (QUITE APART FROM THE FEMINIST THEMES SHE RIGHTLY USES) WE ARE DESTINED TO GO--SO LONG OF COURSE AS SOME PERSON DOES NOT 'PRESS THE BUTTON.'ALWAYS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER--AS DOES GILMAN--THAT AS A PLANETARY SPECIES WE'RE 'NEW FOLK ON THE BLOCK.' AND AS SOCIALLY ORGANISED CREATURES (MAYBE 20,000 YEARS, TOPS) WE'RE 'VERY NEW NEWCOMERS' INDEED.SO, A BIT OF A 'KICK-START' TOWARDS THE LIGHT AFTER A 'PROBATION PERIOD' --IN FACT FROM THE VERY START OF MAN'S BEGINNINGS AS A SOCIALLY ORDERED CREATURE--OF PRETTY DEPRESSING DARKNESS, WHEN MAN HAS SHOW MAINLY WHAT HE IS CAPABLE OF DESTROYING/ SUPPRESSING/ OPPRESSING.GILMAN IS VERY MUCH IN THE TRADITION OF LIGHT. WE OWE HER, AND HER SPIRITUAL ANCESTORS (MALE AND FEMALE) GOING BACK THROUGH THE AGES, MUCH. ...SO: HERLAND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR MEN WHO MAY CONSIDER TIS POSSIBLE THE BATTLE AXE (OR MODERN EQUIVALENT) IS NOT—THOUGH FAR MORE IMPORTANT FOR THE MAJORITY WHO DO—THE BASIC DETERMINING 'WEAPON' ETHIC/ WAY FORWARD IN THE CONDUCT OF LIFE. THERE IS A BETTER, FAR MORE PRODUCTIVE AND AGREEABLE WAY. GILMAN HELPS TO SPELL IT OUT. A PROVOKING, SOBERING AND SALUTARY READ. EXCELLENT MEDICINE, IN PALATABLE FORM AND DOSE.MICHAEL V

This book is brilliant and I'd highly recommend it. The story is engaging and offers the reader an adventure in itself! Perkins was a fabulous writer and it's difficult to understand why this hasn't been made into a film as it would adapt beautifully and perhaps encourage more people to read this book. The feminist notions apparent in the book make it difficult to imagine that this was written at the turn of the last century. It's not preachy at all though, I just loved it, and it's quite funny in parts too.