The Convert - Softcover

Robins, Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1906469490 ISBN 13: 9781906469498

Publisher: Twentieth Century Vox, 2014

Synopsis

First published in 1907 The Convert was based on Elizabeth Robins’s hugely successful play, Votes for Women!, which advocated militancy as the only means of achieving female suffrage. The story centres on Vida Levering, a society beauty who turns personal tragedy into political triumph by throwing her considerable intellect and energy behind the campaign. She also uses a guilty secret to gain the support of her ex-lover, the rising Tory politician Geoffrey Stonor.

In this powerful novel, Robins shows the militants as noble women who care passionately about their cause, challenging the popular myth of bitter troublemakers. Many of the scenes are taken directly from actual suffrage meetings, including verbatim quotes from the hostile men who turned out to heckle them and rousing speeches by the suffragettes who stood up for their principles, at great personal risk.

The Convert is an intoxicating blend of history, fiction and propaganda, but manages to be both funny and poignant. The compelling characters leap off the page and it’s impossible not to be roused by their spirit and integrity.

This new edition includes:

• Introduction
• Chronology of Elizabeth Robins
• Explanatory footnotes
• Suggestions for further reading
• Contemporary reviews of The Convert and Votes for Women!

About this title

About the Author

Elizabeth Robins (August 6, 1862 – May 8, 1952) was an actress, playwright, novelist, and suffragette.

Review

Although Elizabeth Robins was American by birth, she spent a good portion of her life in England as an actress and feminist activist. The Convert is about the British Suffrage movement, which the author knew well. Part witty and scathing commentary on the upper classes, part political rhetoric quoted directly from open-air meetings, and part muck-raking realism, The Convert moves back and forth between the personal and the political until the two can no longer be distinguished. The Convert uses as its frame the political "conversion" of Vida Levering, a beautiful, upper middle-class woman. We follow Vida's growing discontent with "country weekend" society and her increasing awareness of the common lot of women. Forthright and direct, Elizabeth Robins discusses issues that must have been shocking in 1907: unwed motherhood, the effects of the inequality of women, and the essential disrespect that underlies chivalry. Reminiscent of Jane Austen and foreshadowing the work of Virginia Woolf, The Convert is a fascinating novel. It provides us with a sense of history and a feeling of pride in what women could and did accomplish. It is also disturbing because far too many of the issues are still relevant. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister

Edition details

• Publisher: Twentieth Century Vox
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1906469490
• ISBN 13: 9781906469498
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 294
• Editor: Godfrey Emelyne