Unveiling a Parallel: A Romance
Boston, MA: Arena Publishing Company, 1893. Good. Item #48957
Boston, MA: Arena Publishing Company, 1893. First Edition, presumed wrapper issue; a flawed copy with wrappers perished. Octavo; disbound with remnants of wraps to spine; 269pp. + advertisements. Staining and soiling; minor chipping; brief splits to joints; heavy exposure along spine; binding holding soundly and interior unmarked; a Good only copy.
A pioneering work of Feminist Science Fiction, "Unveiling a Parallel" follows a nameless male narrator as he travels to Mars and encounters a society in which women vote and hold positions of power in business and politics. Women are liberated sexually and socially -- the narrator falls in love with Elodia, who belongs to a drinking club, smokes, patronizes male prostitutes, and, to his horror, is raising an illegitimate child. Bleiler sums the work up as "Feminist thought in the form of science-fiction, concentrating mostly on equal economic rights and the sexual double standard." This first edition with author attribution only to "Two Women of the West;" the pair were living in Iowa at the time. Rare in any state with no copies in retail or auction records; an important and overlooked work.
References:
Bleiler Early Years 2214
Duangrudi Suksang. Review of "Unveiling a Parallel," Syracuse University Press Edition, 1991, in Utopian Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1993), pp. 143-145
Kessler, Daring to Dream Number 10.
Price: $400.00