Herland

By: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Narrated by: B. J. Harrison

Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Legends tell of a hidden, exotic civilization entirely populated with women. Three overly confident, and overly masculine, explorers plan to discover and overtake the land. What could go wrong?

Charlotte Perkins Gilman also wrote the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper". She was raised by her three aunts, one of whom was Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Public Domain (P)2017 B.J. Harrison

An insightful and different title that's yet aged

To keep it somewhat straightforward and factual, the diction and tone toward various societal matters, such as race, gender and the social constructs surrounding such matters puts this text in something of a time capsule that shows a good deal of dated ideals, xenophobic customs and even a substantial degree of ethnocentric attitudes.

However, the book painted an interesting picture of a hypothetical world and an admirable one. I was directed to it by a friend and would recommend it to anyone in the right context

Great narrator, inventive utopia

Performance:
Narrator has solid acting skills and manages to give distinct voices to every character. It was a please to listen to him read and very easy to follow along. I normally listen and higher speed, and chose 1.3x for this book

Story:
Great to explore early feminist ideas and theories about what a fully female society could look like. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is brilliantly inventive, and it’s great to have read the other works she inspired (Houston, Houston, do you read?)

every human being should read this book.

I was amazing at how poignant this book still is 105 years after it was written.

Great concept stretched too far

I thoroughly enjoyed the philosophy and ideas presented in Herland. However, the later portions of the novella felt stretched and overdone.

Second time around was a lesson

I read Herland for a sociology class in the early 80s. I recalled the story this fall and grabbed it on Audible as an antidote to the election rhetoric. Maybe I'm just older snd wiser, but I no longer find Herland interesting.
At first it was the references to savages. OK, it was written over 100 years ago. If I could get past this to enjoy Downton Abbey, I could grit my teeth and keep listening.
But then there's the assumption that the highest calling of women is to be mothers. Maybe Herland was radical when it was written, and considered feminist when it was republished in 1979, but "motherhood is all" is not feminist.
But the last straw, and when I stopped listening was when I finally recognized the eugenics basis for the "utopia" that is Herland. But it was a lesson to me that I got about halfway through the book before I recognized that clearly.
The book is worth listening to if for no other reason than to recognize how attractively racism and eugenics can be packaged. For that reason I gave the story 3 stars. Otherwise I'd give it one. The performance is excellent.