Abstract
Near the end of the nineteenth century, Sarah Grand coined the phrase "New Woman," which was influential throughout the first wave of the feminist movement. This paper examines how Sarah Grand's representation of Beth Caldwell's reading habits in her novel The Beth Book acts as a metaphor for the subversive femininity of the New Woman. My project explores the ways in which Grand's feminist ideals are reflected in The Beth Book through the scenes when Beth is reading. I suggest that Beth's atypical engagement with books as textual and physical objects can be equated to social dissent. However, Grand also portrays Beth reading within educational and marital institutions. These experiences lead Beth's engagement with the text to become similar to common nineteenth-century reading practices. I conclude with the argument that Grand represents any personal engagement with a book, even if it is not especially radical, as capable of re-evaluating systemically-enforced interpretations.
Highlights
Sarah Grand’s The Beth Book is a vehicle for understanding the division between men and women during the nineteenth century
In “The New Aspect of the Woman Question,” Grand suggests that this division exists because men limit women’s access to education and claim that women’s ignorance is proof that men are naturally more rational, leading to the normalization of women’s intellectual dependence on men (272)
Grand uses the term “New Woman” to describe a woman who recognizes that the division of the sexes is unnatural and so can be bridged (Grand, “Woman Question” 271)
Summary
Sarah Grand’s The Beth Book is a vehicle for understanding the division between men and women during the nineteenth century. This essay will explore the extent to which Beth Caldwell enacts or departs from the typical experience of a nineteenth-century reader and represents the role of a New Woman. Grand’s depiction of the world before Beth is a re-enactment of typical uses of books in the nineteenth century.
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