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The Hermaphrodite
Written in the 1840s and published here for the first time, Julia Ward Howe’s novel about a hermaphrodite is unlike anything of its time—or, in truth, of our own. Narrated by Laurence, who is raised and lives as a man, is loved by men and women alike, and can respond to neither, this unconventional story explores the understanding “that fervent hearts must borrow the disguise of art, if they would win the right to express, in any outward form, the internal fire that consumes them.” Laurence describes his repudiation by his family, his involvement with an attractive widow, his subsequent wanderings and eventual attachment to a sixteen-year-old boy, his own tutelage by a Roman nobleman and his sisters, and his ultimate reunion with his early love. His is a story unique in nineteenth-century American letters, at once a remarkable reflection of a largely hidden inner life and a richly imagined tale of coming of age at odds with one’s culture. Howe wrote The Hermaphrodite when her own marriage was challenged by her husband’s affection for another man—and when prevailing notions regarding a woman’s appropriate role in patriarchal structures threatened Howe’s intellectual and emotional survival. The novel allowed Howe, and will now allow her readers, to occupy a speculative realm otherwise inaccessible in her historical moment.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1840
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390 people want to read
About the author
Julia Ward Howe
80 books7 followersAmerican writer and feminist Julia Ward Howe, (1819 -1910) was active in the abolitionist cause and the suffrage movement of women, wrote "
Battle Hymn of the Republic
" (1862) and edited Woman's Journal from 1870 to 1890.
Julia Ward married Samuel Gridley Howe, a physician and reformer who had founded the Perkins School for the Blind.
After her death, three of her daughters collaborated on a biography published in 1916. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
Julia Ward married Samuel Gridley Howe, a physician and reformer who had founded the Perkins School for the Blind.
After her death, three of her daughters collaborated on a biography published in 1916. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
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November 30, 2015The Hermaphrodite may be a tough novel to read, but it is an important book on many levels, considering when it was written and what was going on in the life of the author at the time.
for plot and more of an in-depth look at what scholars have to say about this book, you can click here; otherwise, you can get some basic ideas from the following.
There is so much going on in this book that I can't begin to cover it all. Howe's book is important mainly because of the way it contributes to an understanding of gender awareness and sexuality in America of the time. It also reveals Howe's belief that gender was more or less a construct, something that is widely covered in literature today, but a very radical idea in Antebellum America. The reverse was true in Europe: as noted in the novel's introduction, Theophile Gautier was writing along these lines in his Mademoiselle de Maupin (definitely NOT an American favorite of the time; one critic called it an outrage to the "common sentiment of the American mind") as was George Sand, whose Gabriel featured an intersex character, and whose work Howe admired.
In the introduction to this novel, scholar Gary Williams, who has painstakingly reconstructed the fragments of this work from Howe's originals, notes that
"Howe saved herself with this history of a strange being," which he claims is a "projection of both her husband and herself;" he also notes that "the narrative...is solidly rooted in the psychological terrain" of Howe's life at the time. Her marriage to Samuel Gridley Howe was problematic from the beginning. According to Michael Bronski, author of A Queer History of the United States
"Julia Ward Howe ... wrote a novel about a hermaphrodite--a man/woman who loves both men and women--that most critics now think was her own meditation on her husband's bisexuality."
Along those lines, Williams notes that "the trope of the hermaphrodite seems to have offered a scaffold for trying to understand in corporeal terms why a man (or an apparent man) might wish to deflect the attentions of a beautiful and devoted woman," and that
"the hermaphrodite was arguably as useful as a screen on which to project certain other aspects of her situation. Laurence may be Samuel Howe, yes, but "he" is also Julia, a being fusing culturally ascribed impulses of both genders and thereby consigned, according to the logic of American domestic ideology, to a loveless and sexless ambition." (xxvii)
As a woman of her time, Howe felt constrained by "claustrophobic conditions" (marriage, motherhood, male society's expectations of women in those roles) that hindered her desire to fulfill her intellectual ambitions. Her frustrations along these lines are also explored here fictionally, mainly toward the end.
There is so much more to talk about -- art, the spirit of true and nonsexual love and friendship between men and women, identity, alienation and so on. Suffice it to say that if you can get through the often boggy prose, it is well worth exploring, and I'm extremely happy to have read it, despite the difficulties.
for plot and more of an in-depth look at what scholars have to say about this book, you can click here; otherwise, you can get some basic ideas from the following.
There is so much going on in this book that I can't begin to cover it all. Howe's book is important mainly because of the way it contributes to an understanding of gender awareness and sexuality in America of the time. It also reveals Howe's belief that gender was more or less a construct, something that is widely covered in literature today, but a very radical idea in Antebellum America. The reverse was true in Europe: as noted in the novel's introduction, Theophile Gautier was writing along these lines in his Mademoiselle de Maupin (definitely NOT an American favorite of the time; one critic called it an outrage to the "common sentiment of the American mind") as was George Sand, whose Gabriel featured an intersex character, and whose work Howe admired.
In the introduction to this novel, scholar Gary Williams, who has painstakingly reconstructed the fragments of this work from Howe's originals, notes that
"Howe saved herself with this history of a strange being," which he claims is a "projection of both her husband and herself;" he also notes that "the narrative...is solidly rooted in the psychological terrain" of Howe's life at the time. Her marriage to Samuel Gridley Howe was problematic from the beginning. According to Michael Bronski, author of A Queer History of the United States
"Julia Ward Howe ... wrote a novel about a hermaphrodite--a man/woman who loves both men and women--that most critics now think was her own meditation on her husband's bisexuality."
Along those lines, Williams notes that "the trope of the hermaphrodite seems to have offered a scaffold for trying to understand in corporeal terms why a man (or an apparent man) might wish to deflect the attentions of a beautiful and devoted woman," and that
"the hermaphrodite was arguably as useful as a screen on which to project certain other aspects of her situation. Laurence may be Samuel Howe, yes, but "he" is also Julia, a being fusing culturally ascribed impulses of both genders and thereby consigned, according to the logic of American domestic ideology, to a loveless and sexless ambition." (xxvii)
As a woman of her time, Howe felt constrained by "claustrophobic conditions" (marriage, motherhood, male society's expectations of women in those roles) that hindered her desire to fulfill her intellectual ambitions. Her frustrations along these lines are also explored here fictionally, mainly toward the end.
There is so much more to talk about -- art, the spirit of true and nonsexual love and friendship between men and women, identity, alienation and so on. Suffice it to say that if you can get through the often boggy prose, it is well worth exploring, and I'm extremely happy to have read it, despite the difficulties.
March 11, 2024
(read for class) rest in peace virginia woolf you would've love this novel (in which a genderless trans person's sexiness kills 1, injures several, and makes the narrator so stressed out that they have fever dreams about god and their bad father). this is my new favorite book
Read
August 4, 2022I can't tell if this book is good but I'm inconsolable.
May 27, 2021
I feel like it should be a bigger deal that the author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" also wrote an unpublished novel with an intersexed protagonist.
June 1, 2011
For being a 19th century novel, it is incredibly scandalous. The main character struggles with identity and is taken advantage of throughout most of the book. Howe comments on humanity's natural tendancy toward cruelty and the conscious decision that must be made to accept people on a spiritual transcendency.
The fact this work was "found" and not directly published also adds to the intrigue. I am currently reading _Annabel_ and will revisit this for a comparative study.
The fact this work was "found" and not directly published also adds to the intrigue. I am currently reading _Annabel_ and will revisit this for a comparative study.
August 14, 2012
Laurence, a hermaphrodite raised as a male, comes to learn his sexual difference while coming-of-age, and temporarily decides to live as a woman. His studies in the classics and Antiquity highly influence his path to "enlightenment" and his understanding of alienation. The "novel," probably unfinished and only published very recently, is particularly interesting when placed in the context of its historical moment. It's weird, early genderqueer, and amazing.
pause
April 25, 2025will probably come back to this eventually
February 14, 2008
Written in the 1840s, and not published until 2004, this very interesting novel is both a reflection of its time in terms of literary style (including a fair amount of melodrama), and not at all of its time as it deals with a topic generally unmentionable at the time except in medical texts.
Laurence, the protagonist, raised as a male by his parents so that he will be able to make his way in the world, is viewed by them as a monster. He is packed off to school, his contacts with family are few and cold, and when he reaches maturity his father pays him to give up his ties to the family. He is loved by a beautiful widow who despairs at his seeming coldness, and dies in an apoplectic fit when she learns his secret. He then lives as a hermit for a time, and later finds a position tutoring a young Baron who also falls in love with him. He later lives for a time as a woman among women, but chooses to return to male identity.
Altogether a fascinating book for those who enjoy 19th century literature or are interested in one woman's views of the topic of intersexed individuals.
Laurence, the protagonist, raised as a male by his parents so that he will be able to make his way in the world, is viewed by them as a monster. He is packed off to school, his contacts with family are few and cold, and when he reaches maturity his father pays him to give up his ties to the family. He is loved by a beautiful widow who despairs at his seeming coldness, and dies in an apoplectic fit when she learns his secret. He then lives as a hermit for a time, and later finds a position tutoring a young Baron who also falls in love with him. He later lives for a time as a woman among women, but chooses to return to male identity.
Altogether a fascinating book for those who enjoy 19th century literature or are interested in one woman's views of the topic of intersexed individuals.
February 7, 2017
This book has some really interesting implications. While it was REALLY dense and hard to get through, I think that this text has some really interesting and highly progressive applications for its time. Lawrence, born intersex ("hermaphrodite" being an antiquated term) is genderfluid and lives some of their life as a man, and some as a woman. Through Lawrence, Ward-Howe is able to raise interesting questions about gender norms and intellectual freedom. This is a strange little book, and was VERY bold considering its time (although it was never actually published until it was discovered in a Harvard library nearly a century later), but I really enjoyed it.
January 29, 2020
I would have loved to read a finished manuscript of this fascinating idea from a quietly revolutionary writer, because there is some genuinely beautiful prose here. But at the same time, this story fighting itself to emerge is oddly in harmony with its alienated protagonist. As one of the back cover reviews says, it would have been less surprising to find such a novel in Whitman or Melville’s bottom drawer, but from Julia Ward Howe it offers a whole new lens on 19th century American literature.
August 19, 2009
Yes, THE Julia Ward Howe.
November 23, 2022
Wishes it were Middlesex but who doesn’t
June 23, 2024
just so beautiful it grabbed me by the throat.
desire until it kills you and thank god you have not yet turned to stone!!!
desire until it kills you and thank god you have not yet turned to stone!!!
February 16, 2023
Had to read for class- I thoroughly enjoyed this book. An incomplete, fragmented novel that the author never thought/intended? to be published but full of beautiful prose and captivating scenes. The introduction by Gary Williams was fascinating and set such a great scene before beginning.
March 21, 2023
So Good, So Sad. It is pieces of an unpublished manuscript from the 1840s so it starts and ends in the middle of sentences. A lot of the book interrogates the social rules and lack of options for women in the 19th century. With visions, a duel, deaths and ghosts, it definitely falls in the Gothic category. There is a lot of tragic content (being disowned, attempted rape, dysphoria, misgendering) and Laurence deserves better.
Textually, on a sentence and language level it is stunningly beautiful. I read a friend this passage, and they said it grabbed them by the throat, "Hast thou never borne injustice and contumely with a sorrow that becomes scorn, a scorn which becomes patients, until some unlooked for word of sympathy has suddenly overcome thee, wringing from thy stern eyes the tears which unkindness had but frozen there? If not, read on, and thank God that the world has not fed thee with poisons until the real food of human affections has grown deadly to thee" (Howe 119).
It is a hard book to read, but it is totally worth it.
Textually, on a sentence and language level it is stunningly beautiful. I read a friend this passage, and they said it grabbed them by the throat, "Hast thou never borne injustice and contumely with a sorrow that becomes scorn, a scorn which becomes patients, until some unlooked for word of sympathy has suddenly overcome thee, wringing from thy stern eyes the tears which unkindness had but frozen there? If not, read on, and thank God that the world has not fed thee with poisons until the real food of human affections has grown deadly to thee" (Howe 119).
It is a hard book to read, but it is totally worth it.
December 31, 2011
I'm really excited about this book. Howe never planned to publish it, so it's fragmentary in nature and the style is clunky in places; nevertheless, Gary Williams has done a great job making the text accessible. Among other things, it's a remarkable study in ideas about gender as social construction and as performance -- all the more so because it was written in the 1840s. Howe renders Laurence in very sympathetic terms, and she treats his relationship with Ronald with a great deal of compassion as well. More people need to read this text so I can talk about it with them!
July 26, 2018
Brave, bold, and totally unique in its time, the manuscript holds the trappings of modernity in conversation with the gothic. Because of its unpublished status its fragmentation prevents all the strands from ultimately coming together but what a wonderful arch of a story, like an unfinished sketch by a Renaissance master. Highly recommend for those interested in the gothic, the picaresque, and those interested in stream of consciousness, questions of gender performance of identity, and lovers of all kinds of art.
June 28, 2019
This unfinished novel by Julia Ward Howe presents the case of a person born intersex who is raised as a boy but eventually lives for some time as a woman. Editor Gary Williams does a good job of assembling the fragments of this novel and inserting explanatory notes to transition where there are large gaps in the storyline. The characters and story are interesting and unique, especially since it was written in the 1840s. This is a fascinating addition to my understanding of American literature.
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September 17, 2011Wrote a screenplay treatment based on this 18th century manuscript. Was a tough read given that the book missed pages from the manuscript, but was a blessing in disguise - made me add color to plots and characters. Cant wait to write the screenplay for this.
February 20, 2022
Update time:
This book is an unfinished manuscript by Julia Ward Howe. In many way, some literal, some thematic, it's an incomplete story, that'll leave you asking for a more that most likely doesn't exist. Howe, most famous for her poem "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", in fact, never meant for this book to be published. The subject matter would be difficult for its time, although now we have the privledge of looking at it for what it is and for what it could be.
The story revolves around a hermaphrodite - sort of - named Laurence (something Laurent). We don't know for sure what Laurence is - there's never a moment where it's like: "okay pals, here an intensive and inappropriate microsection dedicated to this characters genitals" - we just know that he's a man who carries the disposition of a woman.
The plot revolves around the challenges Laurence face's growing up with his disposition. He seems attracted to both genders, sometimes neither, and draws in the affection of each with extremity. We follow his youthful whiles as he courts young Emma, and as she passed, his passionate love-hate affair with the crazed and dazed Ronald. We see him growing further apart from his father, who hopes to pass on his fortune to his eldest son, but refuses him a dignity, and closer to his child brother, who grows up abandoned and impassioned in a quest to find his sibling. There a whole chapter with a Roman named Bernito, and his three sister, including the Young Werther-eseque Nina, and a brilliant carnival scene. (im writing this from memory, im hope to come back and clear this up when i have a minute).
(this is a take that might piss people off, but,) Laurence sometimes seems to imperfect imitation of Christ. There's a line in particular that I think of:
In my agony, I bethought me of Christ. I called upon his name, and to it grew light once more, and a gentle form stood before me. With one hand he motioned back the angel saying: ‘spare him for my sake—' with the other he touched me, and said very graciously, ‘child, come hither no more till I call thee’—then, it became as though I slept. (49)
In Middle Ages people found it possible to fuse the sexes in their depictions of God because the applications of male/female contrasts were only used to organize life symbolically. Medieval
thinkers thus saw not just the body of Christ but all bodies, as both male and female. (1) I think Howe, unintentionally, plays with this agendered abstraction of the body. What is a hand which is feminine? A leg which masculine? What is it about a body then, especially one made of spirit, that we can inherently male?
Other looming thoughts: Laurence could be intersex (we're unsure). There's nothing to say that the version you read here is the one closest to what Howe wanted. All we have is what we can find. If that means just shitty drafts, then is just a book of shitty drafts. That said however, I'm giving it five stars, even at the expense of spelling errors, and parts of the plot that seem just a little too absurd (Ronald is like, I knew you were gonna get the gun, so i took the bullets out in advance - huh????), because it has some of the most beautiful writing that I've seen in a long time. There were a few passages that almost made me cry and I cant remember the last time a piece of writing has made me emotional. This review is a little all over the place, ill fix it later. have fun anyone who reads it as it is.
p.s. I refer to Laurence as a he in this review only because he himself never switch his gender pronoun, only when pretending to be a women (not a malign at the character, there are a few times where he literally dressed and acts like a woman while calling himself a he).
double p.s. you'll get real sick real quick of hearing Laurence be compared to marble. we get it Howe
triple p.s. from an edit: most likely one of the oldest books published on transgenderism out there. It's from the the 18th century, so there wasn't a word for it yet. But from a contemporary eye, it seems really clear what Howe might be describing. Which opens up some interesting historical lenses. We've known for a long time that trans people where a thing, but we didn't know they were a thing associated with the poet Julia Ward Howe (at least in her consciousness). Why she knew or thought or wrote about early trans people is an mystery. It's worth noting too that she was a poet alone. Not an author. She wrote a whole manuscript about trans person, which just on the writing end is a hard thing to do. I have more questions than answers.
(1) taken almost verbatim from a Caroline Walker Bynum article
This book is an unfinished manuscript by Julia Ward Howe. In many way, some literal, some thematic, it's an incomplete story, that'll leave you asking for a more that most likely doesn't exist. Howe, most famous for her poem "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", in fact, never meant for this book to be published. The subject matter would be difficult for its time, although now we have the privledge of looking at it for what it is and for what it could be.
The story revolves around a hermaphrodite - sort of - named Laurence (something Laurent). We don't know for sure what Laurence is - there's never a moment where it's like: "okay pals, here an intensive and inappropriate microsection dedicated to this characters genitals" - we just know that he's a man who carries the disposition of a woman.
The plot revolves around the challenges Laurence face's growing up with his disposition. He seems attracted to both genders, sometimes neither, and draws in the affection of each with extremity. We follow his youthful whiles as he courts young Emma, and as she passed, his passionate love-hate affair with the crazed and dazed Ronald. We see him growing further apart from his father, who hopes to pass on his fortune to his eldest son, but refuses him a dignity, and closer to his child brother, who grows up abandoned and impassioned in a quest to find his sibling. There a whole chapter with a Roman named Bernito, and his three sister, including the Young Werther-eseque Nina, and a brilliant carnival scene. (im writing this from memory, im hope to come back and clear this up when i have a minute).
(this is a take that might piss people off, but,) Laurence sometimes seems to imperfect imitation of Christ. There's a line in particular that I think of:
In my agony, I bethought me of Christ. I called upon his name, and to it grew light once more, and a gentle form stood before me. With one hand he motioned back the angel saying: ‘spare him for my sake—' with the other he touched me, and said very graciously, ‘child, come hither no more till I call thee’—then, it became as though I slept. (49)
In Middle Ages people found it possible to fuse the sexes in their depictions of God because the applications of male/female contrasts were only used to organize life symbolically. Medieval
thinkers thus saw not just the body of Christ but all bodies, as both male and female. (1) I think Howe, unintentionally, plays with this agendered abstraction of the body. What is a hand which is feminine? A leg which masculine? What is it about a body then, especially one made of spirit, that we can inherently male?
Other looming thoughts: Laurence could be intersex (we're unsure). There's nothing to say that the version you read here is the one closest to what Howe wanted. All we have is what we can find. If that means just shitty drafts, then is just a book of shitty drafts. That said however, I'm giving it five stars, even at the expense of spelling errors, and parts of the plot that seem just a little too absurd (Ronald is like, I knew you were gonna get the gun, so i took the bullets out in advance - huh????), because it has some of the most beautiful writing that I've seen in a long time. There were a few passages that almost made me cry and I cant remember the last time a piece of writing has made me emotional. This review is a little all over the place, ill fix it later. have fun anyone who reads it as it is.
p.s. I refer to Laurence as a he in this review only because he himself never switch his gender pronoun, only when pretending to be a women (not a malign at the character, there are a few times where he literally dressed and acts like a woman while calling himself a he).
double p.s. you'll get real sick real quick of hearing Laurence be compared to marble. we get it Howe
triple p.s. from an edit: most likely one of the oldest books published on transgenderism out there. It's from the the 18th century, so there wasn't a word for it yet. But from a contemporary eye, it seems really clear what Howe might be describing. Which opens up some interesting historical lenses. We've known for a long time that trans people where a thing, but we didn't know they were a thing associated with the poet Julia Ward Howe (at least in her consciousness). Why she knew or thought or wrote about early trans people is an mystery. It's worth noting too that she was a poet alone. Not an author. She wrote a whole manuscript about trans person, which just on the writing end is a hard thing to do. I have more questions than answers.
(1) taken almost verbatim from a Caroline Walker Bynum article
April 15, 2023
Like others, I am stunned by this novel by Julia Ward Howe, albeit in fragments a century after she wrote it. The introduction by Gary Williams is most helpful in terms of his method.
Incredible that such a book came from her. The urge to find her voice as a writer, to overcome her husband's infidelity with a man, the yearning to read widely to understand the world and how different people are and yet how alike in their behaviors and the very modern "take" on intersexuality and a religious apotheosis when the body is empty of all but yearning for God - so modern!
I was so intrigued by Laurence, rejected by his family and left to wander like through place and time and people, always searching for meaning and meeting with God. Forced to live as a man, attractive to both men and women, he finds a series of young muses, but rejects any physical relationships with them.
In the end he does find some glory after a long life quest.
An activist for women's rights and peace, Howe lived a long and useful life.
I just can't believe the modernity of her work and causes, as well as the number of European writers and artists who explored many of the same sexual, political and religious issues.
I'll certainly never see her in the same light ever again!
Incredible that such a book came from her. The urge to find her voice as a writer, to overcome her husband's infidelity with a man, the yearning to read widely to understand the world and how different people are and yet how alike in their behaviors and the very modern "take" on intersexuality and a religious apotheosis when the body is empty of all but yearning for God - so modern!
I was so intrigued by Laurence, rejected by his family and left to wander like through place and time and people, always searching for meaning and meeting with God. Forced to live as a man, attractive to both men and women, he finds a series of young muses, but rejects any physical relationships with them.
In the end he does find some glory after a long life quest.
An activist for women's rights and peace, Howe lived a long and useful life.
I just can't believe the modernity of her work and causes, as well as the number of European writers and artists who explored many of the same sexual, political and religious issues.
I'll certainly never see her in the same light ever again!
March 19, 2025
Read for school.
This was a very interesting read but it was filled with such extreme philosophical monologues that the 180 pages felt like a lifetime to read. I wouldn’t read it again but I’m not unhappy that I read it.
Also, this is the first book I ever read that wasn’t completely finished and that was a bit hard to get used to. Each of the 3 parts were semi different and there was no transition between them.
Laurence was weirdly relatable in a lot of his actions, he was such a vibe and I enjoyed reading about him. I feel as though such a book could be written today with all the same things such as gender fluidity, asexuality, bad fathers, forbidden romance, and dramatic deaths.
This was a very interesting read but it was filled with such extreme philosophical monologues that the 180 pages felt like a lifetime to read. I wouldn’t read it again but I’m not unhappy that I read it.
Also, this is the first book I ever read that wasn’t completely finished and that was a bit hard to get used to. Each of the 3 parts were semi different and there was no transition between them.
Laurence was weirdly relatable in a lot of his actions, he was such a vibe and I enjoyed reading about him. I feel as though such a book could be written today with all the same things such as gender fluidity, asexuality, bad fathers, forbidden romance, and dramatic deaths.
October 3, 2021
A book that I picked up on a whim to read for leisure. An intriguing beginning, middle and end as it followed Laurent/Laurence's journey through gender identity and self-discovery. Even with its fragmented segments and no true conclusion, the complexities of Laurent's almost non-human nature kept me turning to the next page. In my opinion it was not too difficult of a read, the narrative was easy to follow (except in the last act where the writing is more fragmented. A wonderful find at my bookstore and an incredible discovery of writing by others.
March 6, 2025
Would have been better if the philosophy fat was cut out. So much waxing poetic nonsense and reciting the driest of philosophy and the lives of others that mean nothing in the end instead of focusing on Laurence and his feelings about himself. Whenever it talked about his intersex status and the way that he yearns for people but cannot be close to others because of his fears and their rejection, I was intrigued, but I feel like that happened far less than I expected.
July 13, 2025
Incomplete but an interesting think piece
Even though this book is incomplete, it was incredibly relatable for me as a trans person to read a book about an intersex person that was written during the Gothic period. I love that period, and I found myself wishing the book had an end and that the manuscript was complete. Truly, the lesson I learned from reading this book is that the only thing I need to do to assert my gender is throw a rock really, really hard.
Even though this book is incomplete, it was incredibly relatable for me as a trans person to read a book about an intersex person that was written during the Gothic period. I love that period, and I found myself wishing the book had an end and that the manuscript was complete. Truly, the lesson I learned from reading this book is that the only thing I need to do to assert my gender is throw a rock really, really hard.
March 11, 2025
In awe that this was written in the 1840s. I wish it was possible to read it with its full intended manuscript. However, this was still wonderful for its time. The discussions on perceived gender were really ahead of its era
June 30, 2019
read for class
July 7, 2020
Julia Ward Howe used this fiction project to explore issues of gender identity which were taboo in her day. Fascinating read!
January 17, 2021
It's just... not a good book. Stale.
October 15, 2022
Very Very unfinished manuscript with too much philosophy for my tastes
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