Beatrice the Sixteenth

by Irene Clyde, Lucy Sante (Introduction)

A pioneering feminist adventure in an alternate world—before the concept of gender.

Introduced by Lucy Sante, author of the acclaimed memoir of transition I Heard Her Call My Name, this pioneering 1909 feminist utopia is productively discombobulating. When Mary Hatherley, an intrepid British explorer, is kicked in the head by the camel she was riding through the Arabian desert, she finds herself transported to what seems to be an alternate version of Earth. Arriving in Armeria, she discovers a society in which the very concept of gender is unknown. Like Mary, the reader will become disoriented, enjoyably By avoiding the use of gendered pronouns, the story’s author (herself a gender-fluid activist) challenges our assumptions about gendered social paradigms.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction

342 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1909

About the author

Also Thomas Baty, English lawyer and author.

Reviews

[Nicole (Nerdish.Maddog) · Rating 2 out of 5]

So let me start by saying this book is OLD and thus it is written in the old timey style of writing that seems to drag on for days. Its a little dry but the ideas are fresh and clever for its time. The novel is about an explorer who is injured while crossing the desert and wakes up in a different part of the multiverse. The universe she has awakened to is a feminist utopia, minus that part where people are still enslaved and its normal. The story reminds me a lot of Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, in that it is more of a telling of what you will find in this strange new universe. Irene Clyde would best be described today as trans or non-binary, so she writes her utopia as a world that she wishes were real. Sapphic love is not just something that is accepted by this society but more of the norm. Gender does not exist and yet everything is strangely feminine. This context is honestly what makes this story beautiful and hopeful. It is refreshing to read utopian, multi-verse science fiction after all my other multiverse experiences this year.

[Sarahtar · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not know how you take a tale of being knocked into an alternate universe, assimilating into the new culture, engaging in palace intrigue and then helping with a war and make it super boring, but this wizard has done it!

I have seen this book described widely as taking place in a feminist utopia. If this is utopia to feminists, it's straight terrifying. Human trafficking. Slavery without hope for freedom. Harsh punishment for slaves.

Yikes.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of an interesting artifact than an interesting read. The invented land, Armeria, seems like the kind of place an affluent Edwardian English person would find a pleasantly exotic place to visit.

Kudos to Mint Editions for republishing obscure titles, but I wish they had more diligent proofreaders: this book is riddled with typos that look like OCR errors.

[Dezzy Boots]

Actually such a dispiriting experience to read this and expect so much and feel this let down

Such a shallow and deeply colonial idea of a post-gender, but still sapphic and monogamous society, lol. The idealised vegetarian diets also ring as especially insulting, owning slaves and contributing to a sinister militarist is fine as long as you can have your figs and chickpeas.

Irene Clyde is a hack

[Christi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5