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Herland
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Published November 19, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 3, 2025
"La terra delle donne" - versione italiana - è una favola in tutti i sensi. L'Autrice scrive di una società di donne, ragazze e bambine, sgombra da uomini da circa duemila anni, racchiusa in un altopiano lontano dalla "civiltà" e quasi irragiungibile. Pubblicato nel 1915 fa parte secondo me di una linea di pensiero (che unisce Thoreau, Whitman, Perkins Gilman e sicuramente altri/e che non conosco ancora), di un ideale di umanità in simbiosi con la natura, solidale e non competitiva - che prende le distanze dalla società patriarcale e rigetta la barbarie di cui è capace - in cui persino la femminilità si stempera perchè non risente dello sguardo e delle voglie, del volere/potere dell'uomo e la donna non è individuabile/associabile con il suo genere ma diventa un essere con uguali esigenze e diritti.
"You see we are not accustomed to horrible ideas." This was a lesson to me. No wonder this whole nation of women was peaceful and sweet in expression - they had no horrible ideas.
"You see we are not accustomed to horrible ideas." This was a lesson to me. No wonder this whole nation of women was peaceful and sweet in expression - they had no horrible ideas.
June 17, 2024
Really thought I'd enjoy this more.... I was not gripped or hooked in the slightest and didn't love a single character but I loved the feminism (especially considering it was written in 1915) so 3 stars.
P.s this was not a picture book (@ella) - I just couldn't find the standalone book in Goodreads!!!!!
P.s this was not a picture book (@ella) - I just couldn't find the standalone book in Goodreads!!!!!
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August 17, 2025I have savoured "The Yellow Wallpaper" but failed to delve deeper into Gilman's writing -- my loss, because "Herland" (1915) depicts a remarkable feminist Utopia populated by women who bear children through parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction). The result is a society free of war and conflict, based on the just raising of girl children, the gentle teachings of wise elders, universal education and scholarly approaches to all aspects of life.
It is told from the perspective of Van Jennings, a sociology student, who forms an expedition with friend Terry Nicholson (a sexist boor) and Jeff Margrave (a gentle-man) to investigate the possibility of an uncharted land peopled solely by women. With this device, one is able to amply see the subjugation and unjust treatment of women in the west; the faults of a society based on male pride and dominance; the lack of thought and socialism. At first I doubted whether women were truly this good: without jealousy, or aggression, or need to dominant. But then I see that these traits were gradually diminished, through each successive, and slight improved generation. (It's never adequately explained how these generations could deviate given they all had the same gene structure, but I'm willing to let this go - given the book dates to 1915.)
Especially compelling was the chapter on the archaic underpinnings of religion (see passages quoted below).
"Herland" was initially published in monthly installments which may in part forgive the repetition (especially on the topic of the supreme importance of being a mother). Still, it is extremely compelling and well worth reading.
Some passages I enjoyed (I have an Amazon print-on-demand version of the book, which is not paginated):
On wooing elsewhere: "You see, if a man loves a girl who is in the first place young and inexperienced; who in the second place is educated with a background of caveman tradition, a middle-ground of poetry and romance, and a foreground of unspoken hope and interest all centering upon the one event; and who has, furthermore, absolutely no other hope or interest worthy of her name -- why, it is a comparatively easy matter to sweep her off her feet with a dashing attack." (Chapter 8: The girls of Herland)
On religion: Van asks "Have you no respect for the past? For what was thought and believed by your foremothers?"//"Why, no," [Ellador] said. "Why should we? They are all gone. They knew less than we do. If we are not beyond them, we are unworthy of them -- and unworthy of the children who must go beyond us."
...Van: "You see, our religions come from behind you, and are initiated by some great teacher who is dead. He is supposed to have known the whole thing and taught it, finally. All we have to do it believe--and obey. ... We consider it inspired -- 'the Word of God.'"//Ellador: "How do you know it is?"//"Because it says so."//"Does it say so in as many words? Who wrote that in?" I began to try to recall some text that did say so and could not bring it to mind.//"Apart from that," she pursued, "what I cannot understand is why you keep these early religious ideas so long. You have changed all your others, haven't you."
The women do have Temple Mothers: an applied wisdom. But Van notes: "They had no ritual, no little set of performances called 'divine service' save those religious pageants I have spoken of, and those were as much educational as religious, and as much social as either. But they had a clear established connection between everything they did--and God. Their cleanliness, their health, their exquisite order, the rich peaceful beauty of the whole land, the happiness of the children, and above all the constant progress they made--all this was their religion.
On eternal life, Ellador asks: "What do you WANT it for"//"How can you NOT want it!" I protested. "Do you want to go out like a candle? Don't you want to go on and on--growing and--and--being happy forever?"//"Why no," she said. "I don't in the least. I want my child--my child's child--to go on--and they will. What should I want to?"// "But it means Heaven!" I insisted... // "Why Van, darling! How splendid of you to feel it so keenly. That's what we all want, of course--Peace and Beauty, and Comfort and Love--with God! And Progress too, remember; Growth always and always. That is what our religion teaches us to want and to work for and we do!" (Chapter 10 Their religions and our marriages)
It is told from the perspective of Van Jennings, a sociology student, who forms an expedition with friend Terry Nicholson (a sexist boor) and Jeff Margrave (a gentle-man) to investigate the possibility of an uncharted land peopled solely by women. With this device, one is able to amply see the subjugation and unjust treatment of women in the west; the faults of a society based on male pride and dominance; the lack of thought and socialism. At first I doubted whether women were truly this good: without jealousy, or aggression, or need to dominant. But then I see that these traits were gradually diminished, through each successive, and slight improved generation. (It's never adequately explained how these generations could deviate given they all had the same gene structure, but I'm willing to let this go - given the book dates to 1915.)
Especially compelling was the chapter on the archaic underpinnings of religion (see passages quoted below).
"Herland" was initially published in monthly installments which may in part forgive the repetition (especially on the topic of the supreme importance of being a mother). Still, it is extremely compelling and well worth reading.
Some passages I enjoyed (I have an Amazon print-on-demand version of the book, which is not paginated):
On wooing elsewhere: "You see, if a man loves a girl who is in the first place young and inexperienced; who in the second place is educated with a background of caveman tradition, a middle-ground of poetry and romance, and a foreground of unspoken hope and interest all centering upon the one event; and who has, furthermore, absolutely no other hope or interest worthy of her name -- why, it is a comparatively easy matter to sweep her off her feet with a dashing attack." (Chapter 8: The girls of Herland)
On religion: Van asks "Have you no respect for the past? For what was thought and believed by your foremothers?"//"Why, no," [Ellador] said. "Why should we? They are all gone. They knew less than we do. If we are not beyond them, we are unworthy of them -- and unworthy of the children who must go beyond us."
...Van: "You see, our religions come from behind you, and are initiated by some great teacher who is dead. He is supposed to have known the whole thing and taught it, finally. All we have to do it believe--and obey. ... We consider it inspired -- 'the Word of God.'"//Ellador: "How do you know it is?"//"Because it says so."//"Does it say so in as many words? Who wrote that in?" I began to try to recall some text that did say so and could not bring it to mind.//"Apart from that," she pursued, "what I cannot understand is why you keep these early religious ideas so long. You have changed all your others, haven't you."
The women do have Temple Mothers: an applied wisdom. But Van notes: "They had no ritual, no little set of performances called 'divine service' save those religious pageants I have spoken of, and those were as much educational as religious, and as much social as either. But they had a clear established connection between everything they did--and God. Their cleanliness, their health, their exquisite order, the rich peaceful beauty of the whole land, the happiness of the children, and above all the constant progress they made--all this was their religion.
On eternal life, Ellador asks: "What do you WANT it for"//"How can you NOT want it!" I protested. "Do you want to go out like a candle? Don't you want to go on and on--growing and--and--being happy forever?"//"Why no," she said. "I don't in the least. I want my child--my child's child--to go on--and they will. What should I want to?"// "But it means Heaven!" I insisted... // "Why Van, darling! How splendid of you to feel it so keenly. That's what we all want, of course--Peace and Beauty, and Comfort and Love--with God! And Progress too, remember; Growth always and always. That is what our religion teaches us to want and to work for and we do!" (Chapter 10 Their religions and our marriages)
January 8, 2026
It starts off like Conan Doyle's The Lost Continent, and ends up as (fake) ethnology.
The first half holds up ok, even though there are some holes in the plot, but the second half becomes some sort of point-by-point description of that society of women, and frankly it's rather boring: since it doesn't describe what is, but what could be, she has to go all-in. That means that she has a very positive, idealistic and, really, not very realistic picture of what such a society could be.
I don't mean that it wouldn't be better than what we have, but the idea of sisterhood creating an ideal world is, well, as stereotypical as they come, and in that sense pretty gendered!
But interesting nonetheless.
The first half holds up ok, even though there are some holes in the plot, but the second half becomes some sort of point-by-point description of that society of women, and frankly it's rather boring: since it doesn't describe what is, but what could be, she has to go all-in. That means that she has a very positive, idealistic and, really, not very realistic picture of what such a society could be.
I don't mean that it wouldn't be better than what we have, but the idea of sisterhood creating an ideal world is, well, as stereotypical as they come, and in that sense pretty gendered!
But interesting nonetheless.
October 15, 2025
Absolutely Brilliant, I devoured this book. I read it, pulled it apart and put it back together again. The Yellow Wallpaper has been on my TBR list for years and by chance found it on sale at the Avid Reader which included Herland.
Herland is a feminist utopian novel that examines how gender, power, and society are constructed.
Gilman critiques how women are underestimated, controlled, and idealised in patriarchal cultures.
It exposes how gender roles are socially engineered, not inevitable and questions what society could look like when a woman's potential isn't restricted.
Herland is a feminist utopian novel that examines how gender, power, and society are constructed.
Gilman critiques how women are underestimated, controlled, and idealised in patriarchal cultures.
It exposes how gender roles are socially engineered, not inevitable and questions what society could look like when a woman's potential isn't restricted.
January 12, 2026
I have been a fan of Gilman for years,ever since I read The Yellow Paper in my women studies classic literature course. I was blown away when, Herland was trending on social media especially amongst the Gen Z crowd. This story is very fascinating, ahead of it's time and it resonates with our current modern era. Some would say this is too bleak and depressing; however it is not off base. Worth checking out and a quick read.
October 27, 2025
The writing is a bit clunky, but you're reading this as an early example of feminist literature. It's a parable, so you can gloss over (like the book does) the question of "how do they get pregnant?"
May 22, 2024
Awful. Stupid. Had to read for school.
July 2, 2024
Changing mindsets, into the roots of gender inequalities.
March 11, 2025
Interesting woman-led utopian novella.
August 11, 2025
This was an incredible book. The complex, multi-layered thoughts and concepts that went into the story are amazing, especially for the time period in which the writer wrote the book.
October 20, 2025
One of my favorite stories of all time. I read it for the first time about ten years ago and picked it up again recently, and I loved it even more.
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March 1, 2026read for class
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews