Wild Women: Crusaders, Curmudgeons, and Completely Corsetless Ladies in the Otherwise Virtuous Victorian Era

by Autumn Stephens

Enjoy a fascinating and sometimes humorous glimpse into the lives of over one hundred, 19th-century Victorian era American women who refused to whittle themselves down to the Victorian model of proper womanhood. Included in Wild Women are 50-black-and-white photos from the era. During the Victorian era a woman’s pedestal was her prison. “Women should not be expected to write, or fight, or build, or compose scores. She does all by inspiring man to do all.” ─ Ralph Waldo Emerson “There is nothing more dangerous for a young woman than to rely chiefly upon her intellectual powers, her wit, her imagination, her fancy.” ─ Godey’s Lady’s Book magazine “…join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Women’s Rights’ with all its attendant horrors on which her poor feeble sex is bent.” ─ Queen Victoria of England But, scores of nineteenth-century American women chose to live life on their terms. In this book you will meet women who refused to remain on a Victorian pedestal. In San Francisco a courtesan appeared as a plaintiff in court, suing her clients for fraud. In Montana a laundress in her seventies decked a gentleman who refused to pay his bill. A forty-three-year-old schoolteacher plunged down Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel. A frail lighthouse keeper pulled twenty-two sinking sailors out of the ocean off Rhode Island. A pair of Colorado madams fought a public pistol duel over their mutual beau. Two lady lovebirds were legally wed in Michigan. An ad hoc abolitionist spirited away scores of slaves on the Underground Railroad. A Secessionist spy swallowed a secret message as she was arrested, claiming that no one could capture her soul. Readers of books for women such as Women Who Run with the Wolves or Badass Affirmations will love this book about Victorian women who refused to accept the gender roles of their day.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Feminism, Womens, Humor, Reference

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1992

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to agree with another reviewer, I'm not really sure why all the women were include here - I mean Delia Bacon?


But I did learn that the women ran for president long before they could vote. I liked the fact that some of the women were linked. I really enjoyed the story about the women who walked down a street in her all together (No, she didn't get raped).

I have to wonder though. If so many women could marry other women back in the day, why does society have a problem with homosexual marriage? Is it because of the gender?

Not quite as good as the Uppity series, which apparently it gave birth to, but still an enjoyable quick read.

[Yvensong · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, I'm done. Not actually done with reading the whole book, but I'm done trying to convince myself to continue reading. I've skipped over many of the brief biographies, as I grew weary of tales of women whose only contribution was to rip others off, or at least that is how the author painted them. So much of the writing felt mean spirited even toward women who weren't criminals.

There is a lot of good information in the book, though, which is why I'm giving it 2 Stars, instead of 1.

[Ana · Rating 2 out of 5]

My mistake was in confusing this volume with one of the 'Uppity Women' series. Similar format and all that. Next time i'll pay more attention and not be fooled by the size of a book ;o)

I remember really enjoying the 'Uppity Women' titles - I've read the Ancient and Medieval Times volumes - and wanting to read more about each woman after finishing each book.

Not so with this title. I found it a bit of a drag to keep on reading it. Each woman gets 1.5 to 1.75 pages. That bit is ok seeing as this is basically a small anthology of noteworthy women.
Some of the women included were a no-brainer - Emily Dickinson, Sojourner Truth - while others not so much. Er, Emerson's aunt? and simply b/c he said she was an influence on him and she seems to have been mean?

A lot just didn't make any sense. Then others were included for the weirdest of reasons, like one particular woman (only slightly mentioned in a boxed paragraph) who was included b/c she chose to be interred with her female companion rather than with her long departed husband. The horror!

Too much of it, honestly seemed mean-spirited, and far too much of it seemed to trivialize what these women had accomplished. Then again, some of the 'accomplishments' included shouldn't have been.

And apparently there weren't any non-Anglo, non-American women of note during this time period either. I think there might have been a couple of non-Anglo European women thrown in, but only a few. I've read plenty of women's history and i know there were a lot more interesting women around that could've been included here.

Overall, i wouldn't recommend this. Go out and get yourself any one of the Uppity Women series instead.

[Laury · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us who thought we knew what the Victorian era was all about, here come a book about women who didn't find it glamorous to faint because their corsets were squeezing the life out of them, and others who ran for president when women couldn't even vote.

This book covers anybody that was qualifed as "wild" at the time (I simply think they were ahead of their time):
-sharpshooters
-freedom fighters
-women who wore something that slightly ressembles pants (*le gasp of horror!*)
-full-blown cross-dressers
-criminals
-courtesans
-naughty nurses
-unlikely millionaires
-a prostitute who didn't find it funny to not get paid
-latter-days sinners...
There's something for everyone

The language used in the book is very formal-comic. It did feel a like strange at first, but after a while I realized that it made me feel even more in character. It is a book about the Victorian era after all.

I did feel that maybe it could've aim wider. I mean, there's no way on Earth that all the wild women of the time resided in the USA and England only. That's the only sore point for me.

Overall, a very interesting read with a simple underlaying message:
Good girls don't make history.

[Brianna Karp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun to read and definitely interesting/empowering material. The only thing I wished was that there was more written about each woman; the book was a series of short vignettes, and there wasn't enough room to delve too much into the details.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book to read slowly, a page at time, when you're looking to distract yourself from your life with some diverting history. I don't think it works very well as something you sit down and read cover to cover.

I picked it up because I'm writing a novel set in the later Victorian era and wanted to get some flavor. Unfortunately for me, most of the "wild women" in this book are Americans, not Brits, so not as helpful for research as I had hoped.

But still, I enjoyed it, and the bite-sized biographies of all these different women made me smile and in some cases, make plans to read more about them. Such wonderful troublemakers and status quo disrupters. My kind of women.

[Darlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whew! I am finally finished reading this book. You wouldn't think I would have such a bad reaction to a book about strong womyn. And honestly, the knowledge contained within this book is amazing. I did learn a lot about many ladies. I learned a lot about that era of history, also. If it hadn't taken me SO long to read it, I would have given it lots of stars for the educational feature alone.

So why the low rating? The font was impossible for me to read. It is dark black font against a bright white background and the lines are spaced too close together. So I could only handle one or two pages at a time. Luckily, each bio is a page and a half so even though it hurt my eyes I could read at least that much in a day. And that might have been enough unto itself, but the author's writing style was SO annoying. Alliterations and other pitiful poetic word choices built into very long complicated sentences, like this one, made me have to go back and reread whole paragraphs. When you already have tracking problems, this cutesy writing becomes very annoying. Often the choice of words makes for a very confusing read.

If you have great eyes this may be a fun read for you. If so, enjoy! My eyes need a vacation. Back to Kindles for me!

By the way, this copy is a BookCrossing book. BCID 142-11420919 Check out where it's heading and where it's been on BookCrossing.com

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great information about fearless women I our history, but was somewhat hard to read as I felt the author had just received a thesaurus and wanted to use it...a lot.

[Greg Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Women were constrained and diminished by the laws and social norms of the Victorian age. This book chronicles the lives of over 100 wild women, who fought against, sneaked by or disguised themselves to outwit the restrictions set upon them. These are prostitutes, cross-dressers, iconoclasts and free-thinkers. There are famous and infamous women as well as women whose stories are excised from our official histories or who managed to live their lives undetected. There are many historical "firsts" described, stories to inspire. Each story is expressed in a mere two page spread or less, providing fleeting glimpses of the wide range of women's experiences.

[Kest Schwartzman · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book manages to be extraordinarily misogynistic for a book purporting to be about revolutionary women. It mocks its subjects for being to promiscuous, for being too prudish, for caring about things, for... Really everything. The author us perfectly happy to mock literally anything that any woman has done, or that the author thinks they may have thought.

[Dawn Leitheuser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting! Wonderful telling of the rebels of womanhood and etiquette from the past.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read

[Becks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wild Women is a book by author Autumn Stephens on women of the Victorian times who weren't quite that Victorian. From Victoria Woodhull, the nation's first female presidential candidate to Ann Eliza Young, the young polygamous wife of Mormon leader Brigham Young who became a divorcee at young age to the sisters Yates; Sarah and Adelaide who married the conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker to Sarah Winchester the widow who kept building until her death on advice from a psychic.

This book is a fun read to learn bits and pieces about women from the Victorian era who broke all the rules. A must-read for anyone who loves women's studies and wants a bit of fun while doing it.

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always interesting to read about women who stepped out of their 'traditional' roles and followed their hearts (or other body parts, on occasion . . .) Somehow we all need to find a way to be ourselves, even when we don't quite fit in with what society expects. Made me appreciate the freedoms that I have - and made me VERY glad I wasn't around during the victorian era. And reminded me - we can do ANYTHING . . . (and now I have some biographies to read!)

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book title was in the acknowledgments of Emma Donoghue's novel "Frog Music". Her main character is based on the life & death of Jennie Bonnett.

This book consists of two-page mini bios of women in the 19th and early 20th centuries who broke society's rules for what was expected of them. Many women whose names are familiar: Annie Oakley, Carry Nation, Lizzy Borden, Molly Brown, Calamity Jane, but so many more whose interesting lives are remembered here.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wild women during the Victorian age. Many I had heard of like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Susan B. Anthony, Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, Harriet Tubman, Calamity Jane, and Annie Oakley. Many more stories of famous women during that time period.

[Rhoda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reallly find this book interesting and looove how much more "free" we are as women. We have a long way to go sometimes in somethings but WOW I love my grandmas sooo much more now on how hard they were judged.

[Anita George · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is fun and a starting point for learning about some pretty wild women. Each woman has only about a page a half, so the treatment is of course shallow, but that does mean that you can pick this up and put it down again at any point.

[Sonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uhm -- hilarious. Ravishing. Lovely.

[Sequoia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will be a valuable reference source of encouragement and pride for my daughter's women in history units.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun short bios of interesting women of the Victorian Era

[Deina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A glimpse into 150 of the Victorian era's most avant-garde females.

Gives enough information for one to start researching those they find most interesting.

[Roberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful romp for this aging feminist! This one's going to my 17 year old granddaughter who's clearly carrying the torch forward.

[Madeleine McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little bios of women who refused to conform to the Victorian ideal. Most of the ladies are American with a few Canadians but there are no English women. Entertaining read.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love women's history, so I always find it interesting to learn a little bit about the women who were out there breaking the rules and living their own lives long before it was fashionable.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun, interesting, and informative book to read. A great addition to any writer's resource collection.

[Aida · Rating 4 out of 5]

clever, clever mini-history with style

[Elizabeth Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

A super fun romp through the ages, with famous people who often get left out of the history books.

[Shelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

The alliteration drove me crazy. In order to make the alliteration work, the sentences were crazy and difficult to interpret. The stories were interesting, the women amazing, but I wanted more information.

[Cass · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish.
I really wanted to like this. Unfortunately, the writing is so rambling and incoherent as to be almost unreadable.