Herland

Book : Foundations of Feminist Fiction

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Genres: Literary Fiction; Visionary & Metaphysical; War & Military

Synopsis

“As I learned more and more to appreciate what these women had accomplished, the less proud I was of what we, with all our manhood, had done.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland is a thought-provoking work of utopian fiction and a time capsule of early twentieth-century feminism.

On the eve of the First World War, sociology student Vandyck Jennings goes on an expedition with two of his friends to search for a society rumored to consist only of women. On the way to what they will name “Herland,” Van and his friends ponder the type of women they hope or expect to see when they get there … but they find no fantasies when they arrive.

Herland is an all-female, community-driven utopia. Van and his friends are skeptical of a society that doesn’t even need men to procreate, but women and girls who live there have all been raised in a world entirely removed from the patriarchy of the wider world. To them, Herland is a paradise; there are no wars, no conflicts, and no oppressive concepts of gender. These young men, however, are not easily brought into the fold. During their time in Herland, Van and his friends must decide whether they will remain entrenched in their own views of women and society, or if they will open their minds to a way of living they could scarcely have ever imagined.

Release date: June 30, 2010

Publisher: Pantheon

Print pages: 176

Sample

I
A Not Unnatural Enterprise
 
This is written from memory, unfortunately. If I could have brought with me the material I so carefully prepared, this would be a different story. Whole books full of notes, carefully copied records, firsthand descriptions, and the pictures—that’s the worst loss. We had some bird’s-eyes of cities and parks; a lot of lovely views of streets, of building, outside and in, and some of those gorgeous gardens, and, most important of all, of the women themselves.
 
Nobody will ever believe how they looked. Descriptions aren’t any good when it comes to women, and I never was good at descriptions anyhow. But it’s got to be done somehow; the rest of the world needs to know about that country.
 
I haven’t said where it was for fear some self-appointed missionaries, or traders, or land-greedy expansionists, will take it upon themselves to push in. They will not be wanted, I can tell them that, and will fare worse than we did if they do find it.
 
It began this way. There were three of us, classmates and friends—Terry O. Nicholson (we used to call him Old Nick, with good reason, Jeff Margrave, and I, Vandyck Jennings.
 
We had known each other years and years, and in spite of our differences we had a good deal in common. All of us were interested in science.
 
Terry was rich enough to do as he pleased. His great aim was exploration. He use to make all kinds of a row because there was nothing left to explore now, only patchwork and filling in, he said. He filled in well enough—he had a lot of talents—great on mechanics and electricity. Had all kinds of boats and motorcars, and was one of the best of our airmen.
 
We never could have done the thing at all without Terry.
 
Jeff Margrave was born to be a poet, a botanist—or both—but his folks persuaded him to be a doctor instead. He was a good one, for his age, but his real interest was in what he loved to call
the wonders of science,”
 
As for me, sociology’s my major. You have to back that up with a lot of other sciences, of course. I’m interested in them all.
 
Terry was strong on facts—geography and meteorology and those; Jeff could beat him any time on biology, and I didn’t care what it was they talked about, so long as it connected with human life, somehow. There are few things that don’t.
 
We three had a chance to join a big scientific expedition. They needed a doctor, and that gave Jeff an excuse for dropping his just opening practice; they needed Terry’s experience, his machine, and his money; and as for me, I got in through Terry’s influence.
 
The expedition was up among the thousand tributaries and enormous hinterland of a great river up where the maps had to be made, savage dialects studied, and all manner of strange flora and fauna expected.
 
But this story is not about that expedition. That was only the merest starter for ours.
 
###
 
My interest was first roused by talk among our guides. I’m quick at languages, know a good many, and pick them up readily. What with that and a really good interpreter, we took with us, I made out quite a few legends and folk myths of these scattered tribes.
 
And as we got farther and farther upstream, in a dark tangle of rivers, lakes, morasses, and dense forests, with here and there an unexpected long spur running out from the big mountains beyond, I noticed that more and more of these savages had a story about a strange and terrible Woman Land in the high distance.
 
“Up yonder,” “Over there,” “Way up”—was all the direction they could offer, but their legends all agreed on the main point—that there was this strange country where no men lived—only women and girl children.
 
None of them had ever seen it. It was dangerous, deadly, they said, for any man to go there. But there were tales of long ago, when some brave investigator had seen it—a Big Country, Big Houses, Plenty People—All Women.
 
Had no one else gone? Yes—a good many—but they never came back. It was no place for men—of that they seemed sure.
 
I told the boys about these stories, and they laughed at them. Naturally I did myself. I knew the stuff that savage dreams are made of.
 
But when we had reached our farthest point, just the day before we all had to turn around and start for home again, as the best of expeditions must be in time, we three made a discovery.
 
The main encampment was on a spit of land running out into the main stream, or what we thought was the main stream. It had the same muddy color we had been seeing for weeks past, the same taste.
 
I happened to speak of that river to our last guide, a rather superior fellow with quick, bright eyes.
 
He told me that there was another river—“over there, short river, sweet water, red and blue.”
 
Terry was close by and interested in the fellow’s pointing.
 
“What does he say, Van?”
 
I told him.
 
Terry blazed up at once.
 
“Ask him how far it is.”
 
The man indicated a short journey; I judged about two hours, maybe three.
 
“Let’s go,” urged Terry. “Just us three. Maybe we can really find something. May be cinnabar in it.”
 
“May be indigo,” Jeff suggested, with his lazy smile.
 
It was early yet; we had just breakfasted; and leaving word that we’d be back before night, we got away quietly, not wishing to be though too gullible if we failed, and secretly hoping to have some nice little discover to ourselves.
 
It was a long two hours, nearer three. I fancy the savage could have done it alone much quicker.  There was a desperate tangle of wood and water and a swampy patch we never should have found our way across alone. But there was one, and I could see Terry, with compass and notebook, marking directions and trying to place landmarks.
 
We came after a while to a sort of marshy lake, very big, so that the circling forest looked quite low and dim across it. Our guide told us that boats could go from there to our camp—but “long way—all day.”
 
This water was somewhat clearer than that we had left it, but we could not judge well from the margin. We skirted it for another half hour or so, the ground growing firmer as we advanced, and presently we turned the corner of a wooded promontory and saw a quite different country—a sudden view of mountains, steep and bare.
 
“One of those long easterly spurs,” Terry said appraisingly. “May be hundreds of miles from the range. They crop out like that.”
 
Suddenly we left the lake and struck directly toward the cliffs. We heard running water before we reached it, and the guide pointed proudly to his river.
 
It was short. We could see where it poured down a narrow vertical cataract from an opening in the face of the cliff. It was sweet water. The guide drank eagerly and so did we.
 
“That’s snow water,” Terry announced. “Must come from way back in the hills.”
 
But as to being red and blue—it was greenish in tint. The guide seemed not at all surprised. He hunted about a little and showed us a quiet marginal pool where there were smears of red along the border; yes, and of blue.
 
Terry got out his magnifying glass and squatted down to investigate.
 
“Chemicals of some sort—I can’t tell on the spot. Look to me like dyestuffs. Let’s get nearer,” he urged, “up there by the fall.”
 
We scrambled along the steep banks and got close to the pool that foamed and boiled beneath the falling water. Here we searched the border and found traces of color beyond dispute. More—Jeff suddenly held up an unlooked-for-trophy.
 
It was only a rag, a long, raveled fragment of cloth. But it was a well-woven fabric, with a pattern, and of a clear scarlet that the water had not faded. No savage tribe that we had heard of made such fabrics. The guide stood serenely on the bank, well pleased with our excitement.
 
“One day blue—one day red—one day green,” he told us, and pulled from his pouch another strip of bright-hued cloth.
 
“Come down,” he said, pointing to the cataract. “Woman Country—up there.”
 
Then we were interested. We had out rest and lunch right there and pumped the man for further information. He could tell us only what the others had—a land of women—no men—babies, but all girls. No place for men—dangerous. Some had gone to see—none had come back.
 
I could see Terry’s jaw set at that. No place for men? Dangerous? He looked as if he might shin up the waterfall on the spot. But the guide would not hear of going up, even if there had been any possible method of scaling that sheer cliff, and we had to get back to our party before night.
 
“They might stay if we told them,” I suggested.
 
But Terry stopped in his tracks. “Look here, fellows,” he said. “This is our find. Let’s not tell those cocky old professors. Let’s go on home with ‘em, and then come back—just us—have a little expedition of our own.”
 
We looked at him, much impressed. There was something attractive to a bunch of unattached young men in finding an undiscovered country of a strictly Amazonian nature.
 
Of course, we didn’t believe the story—but yet!