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A review by eavans
Woman of the Wolf and Other Stories by Renée Vivien
4.0
Woman of the Wolf and Other Stories is a collection of short stories with an obvious agenda: Men are the bane of women and life is way better off without them. I don't blame Vivien a bit--being a lesbian in the 1900s was probably rife with annoying men, be it from the terrible misogyny or inability to understand female sexuality. The stories are mostly in the vein of men pursuing women with no interest to them; it's (hilariously) written in their point of view of these men baffled and overreaching in their goal of basically obtaining these women, and Vivien's analysis is spot on. We never get the women's point of view, and it shows that her writing was for women who could relate to these persistent men.
Another story I loved was "Prince Charming", a story told in fairly tale style with a fabulous twist ending, and the story "The Jewel(?)" with the gorgeous Madame pulling a knife on a man forcing himself on her was BADASS. Vivien writes female characters not as complex as some feminist writers do, but in roles earlier denied them. The women in her stories are martyrs: they die for what they believe in, the are stronger than the men that balk to their roles, and they are otherworldly in power and beauty. They fight for their autonomy and won't shrink from their passion. It's crazy cool.
Anyways, it's gorgeous, but hell did Vivien hate men. I don't blame her living in the time that she did, but its virulence does make me laugh--her writing can be ridiculous. 4/5 stars because I thought too many of the stories were too similar and the female characters were not particularly "deep". There wasn't much character in them other than their goal of putting men in their place.
Another story I loved was "Prince Charming", a story told in fairly tale style with a fabulous twist ending, and the story "The Jewel(?)" with the gorgeous Madame pulling a knife on a man forcing himself on her was BADASS. Vivien writes female characters not as complex as some feminist writers do, but in roles earlier denied them. The women in her stories are martyrs: they die for what they believe in, the are stronger than the men that balk to their roles, and they are otherworldly in power and beauty. They fight for their autonomy and won't shrink from their passion. It's crazy cool.
Anyways, it's gorgeous, but hell did Vivien hate men. I don't blame her living in the time that she did, but its virulence does make me laugh--her writing can be ridiculous. 4/5 stars because I thought too many of the stories were too similar and the female characters were not particularly "deep". There wasn't much character in them other than their goal of putting men in their place.