The Beth Book

Sarah Grand follows Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure from a watchful, half-starved girlhood, through a marriage that very nearly puts out her intelligence for good, to the discovery that she can think and write and speak for herself. Grand, who gave the New Woman her name, built the book as an argument as much as a story, taking aim at marriages arranged for money, at girls educated into helplessness while their brothers are schooled, and at the medical establishment of her day. Beth is difficult, gifted and often wrong, which is exactly what keeps the novel alive. Published in 1897, it was one of the most argued over books of its decade. Read it free in PDF and EPUB.