WHAT!? "Appropriate for academic and women's studies collections" sounds like the kiss of death for a literary work, and that should not happen to Benigna Machiavelli. This utterly delightful work was passed to me by a (male) friend and, well, ok, I confess it sat on my shelf for months while I continued with my usual fare of crime, warfare, and science fiction. Then one day it was raining too hard to go out and I ran out of books. This is something I usually take great care to prevent as I love a good yarn when I have the time, usually a good "feisty" yarn. In desperation I picked Benigna up and started to read . . . and was hooked. Ms. Gilman clearly understands and delights in the human situation. She describes a young girl facing and solving the problems of her day with wit and humor that goes way beyond her gender. So I say, "To hell with dusty "women's studies collections." This is a great read for anyone with even a smidgeon of interest in the workings of the human mind, and it is an especially great read for any man interested in women.

This work by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is the fictional memoir of a girl grown to womanhood on her own terms. At an early age she decides to become a "good villian" and use her considerable intellect and common sense to make her own life, and the lives of those around her, better. The heroine of the story tackles everything, from obtaining supplies for her school, saving her sister from a would-be seducer, and rescuing the family from their own abusive father, to running her own boarding house, matchmaking for her sister, and helping her mother heal and grow. She succeeds, with wit and style. And Charlotte Perkins Gilman succeeds in creating a highly readable work that both teaches and heals the reader by portraying a better way of life, without preaching.

I teach in Magnolia, Texas and my students were fascinated with this book. They want to do more reading about historical characters now, rather than watching Walt Disney's interpretation of them. Johnson brings history to life as we watch the struggle of this brave woman.

This is a reasoned and scholarly approach to women's history in a specific place and time without being too scholarly and narrow.

Perkin covers the span of Victorian England in time, place, and class.

The tone is measured, even while delivering facts sure to outrage - it was perfectly acceptable in the country fairs for a man to sell his wife and well within the law for a man to claim every cent his wife earned.

Perkin's concluding chapter shows how far women came in one country, in one century, but is ever mindful of the suffering it took to achieve it.