The Eternal Feminine

The Eternal Feminine presents Carolyn Wells's playful yet sharply observant meditation on womanhood as it appeared in the manners, courtship rituals, domestic expectations, and social contradictions of the early twentieth century. Cast in Wells's characteristic light verse and epigrammatic prose rhythms, the book treats "the feminine" not as a fixed essence but as a comic performance shaped by fashion, sentiment, wit, and convention. Its polished brevity, verbal sparkle, and satirical poise place it within the tradition of American genteel humor, while its recurring attention to gender roles gives the work a distinctly modern edge. Carolyn Wells was a remarkably prolific American writer, remembered for detective fiction, children's books, parodies, anthologies, and humorous verse. Her years as a librarian, her wide reading, and her command of popular literary forms made her especially adept at turning social observation into elegant entertainment. Writing in an era when women's public identities were rapidly changing, Wells could both enjoy and gently mock the codes that governed feminine behavior. This volume will appeal to readers interested in women's writing, comic poetry, and the cultural history of gender. It is best approached as a witty period piece: graceful, urbane, and revealing in its laughter.

Pages: 36, Paperback, Sharp Ink