By Taylor Jasmine | On February 9, 2018 | Updated August 9, 2021 | Comments (0)
In The Battle of the Villa Fiorita, a 1963 novel by Rumer Godden, this prolific author delves into a universal dilemma — does a mother have the right to pursue love, or should she set those needs aside for the sake of her children?
This story, which centers on Fanny Clavering and her youngest children, Hugh and Caddie, explores this theme. When the children learn that their mother has run off with a new and enticing man, they begin their quest which culminates in the titled “battle.”
Looking at love, infidelity, and divorce through the eyes of adolescents gives this story its charm, and Rumer Godden, in her usual, skillful way, creates characters about whose fate the reader grows to care about. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On February 6, 2018 | Updated November 11, 2026 | Comments (0)
Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery, published in 1923, is the start of a trilogy of novels about Emily Byrd Starr that invites comparison with the beloved Anne of Green Gables series. These books, as is true for many of L.M. Montgomery’s writings, are meant for “children of all ages.”
Maud Montgomery considered Emily more of a reflection of herself and her own personality than Anne. Emily was a loyal friend, loved learning, appreciated nature, and most of all, wanted to be a writer.
Emily of New Moon was followed by Emily Climbs (1925) and Emily’s Quest (1927). The books follow her through her school years into adulthood as she becomes a successful author. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On January 22, 2018 | Updated July 12, 2023 | Comments (4)
The Custom of the Country is a 1913 novel by Edith Wharton. Undine Spragg, its heroine, is an ambitious young woman from the American midwest. Raised in the fictional town of Apex, she’s the product of a family who has risen to a certain social status through sketchy financial dealings.
Undine strives to rise in New York City society through a succession of marriages and divorces that ultimately lead to her undoing.
Undine Spragg has often been compared to Becky Sharp of Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, minus any of the charm. It has occasionally been supposed whether Edith Wharton, though a woman herself, was a misogyynist. Read More→
By Sarah Wyman | On January 17, 2018 | Updated July 15, 2024 | Comments (2)
Following is Professor Sarah Wyman’s analysis of The Awakening by Kate Chopin, an 1899 novella telling the story of a young mother who undergoes a dramatic period of change.
She “awakens” to her own desires, casting off the restrictions of her traditional societal role as wife and mother, and seeks her full potential as a woman.
Many times, we find Edna Pontellier awake in situations that signify more metaphorical awakenings to new knowledge and sensual experience. Read More→
By Sarah Wyman | On January 16, 2018 | Updated August 8, 2025 | Comments (1)
This analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892) highlights a long short story (or short novella) considered a feminist literary classic. The story starts with a bit of a mystery: the house seems to have “something queer about it.”
As we read on, it becomes clear that the house isn’t the only thing that’s “queer ” The secluded country home and the attic room the narrator inhabits come to represent or symbolize her tenuous situation and slippery sense of self.
The nameless heroine/narrator lives under her physician/husband’s care as a patient (deemed abnormal), subjected to the “rest cure” as a treatment for what appears to be postpartum depression.
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