Book Description

Madame Sarah Grand (1854-1943), born Frances Bellenden Clarke was a feminist writer active from 1873 to 1922 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Her work dealt with the New Woman in fiction and in fact, she wrote treatises on the subject of the failure of marriage, and her novels may be considered strongly anti-marriage polemics. For some women, the New Woman movement provided support for women who wanted to work and learn for themselves, and who started to question the idea of marriage and the inequality of women. For other women, especially Sarah Grand, the New Woman movement allowed women to speak out not only about the inequality of women, but about middle- class women's responsibilities to the nation. In The Heavenly Twins (1893) Grand demonstrates the dangers of the moral double standard which overlooked men's promiscuity while punishing women for the same acts. More importantly, however, Grand argues in The Heavenly Twins that in order for the British nation to grow stronger, middle-class women had the responsibility of choosing mates with whom they might produce strong, well-educated children.