He and the other men, while holistically similar, have their differences, and their three archetypes exhibit a sort of logos-pathos-ethos dynamic, in which Van is the logical, Jeff is the emotional, and Terry is the egomaniac. It is told from the perspective of Van, who is writing the book several years after the events transpired and has the advantage of hindsight.

While it is quite clearly a compendium of Gilman’s feminist commentary, it reads like a complete story and is quite engaging to learn about. Thus, this 146-paged novel is less of an adventuresome tale and more of an in-depth study of Herland’s society and history. As the women inquire about the rest of the planet, the men slowly begin to realize that their own ways–which they previously accepted as “the way it is”–are actually quite inherently faulty. However, once they traverse into the immaculate city of Herland, they realize that they have wildly underestimated the capability of these women and, after being accepted as guests, become “students” of Herland’s society, at the same time “teachers” of the outside world. The men boldly form their hypotheses about this place, predicting that “it’ll be awfully primitive” (page 8) and doubting that women could exist entirely without men “there must be men” (page 11). Although this work of fiction has aged over a century, its poignant commentary is still depressingly relevant.Īfter they discover that the locals’ myths of Herland are true, the three men–Van, Jeff, and Terry–land their small biplane upon its seemingly-inaccessible (by foot) region.

Published in 1915, Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is the story of “a lost feminist utopia” discovered by three American explorers shortly before World War I.

I’m sure that my teenage self would have enjoyed this because my adult self loved it. What would life be like, if I was surrounded only by women? How would my physical and emotional experience change? Unfortunately for the younger version of myself, I never read Herland until just this week, which is Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s imagining of one such utopia. I’ve often dreamed of an all-female utopia.

Herland 1915