Silvana's Reviews > Herland

Yet another classic SF that does not age well. It might be a feminist book but clearly meant for the period when it was published. The plot was simple: three American men went exploring and found a country where there were only women. One of the men was a sexist pig, the other two were also sexist in their own less aggressive ways. They interacted and learned a lot about the history of the women and so on and so forth.

I was initially intrigued with these women who apparently lost all their notion and drive on sex - yes, no lesbians here. But most of all, I was baffled that this book was claimed by some as presenting a utopia yet there were still some unsavory elements (to me) in the Herland society, like motherhood as god/religion and focus on every aspects of life as well as their own style of eugenics.

It was a quick read nonetheless, I finished this in two hours. An interesting piece of speculative fiction - the bits on children's education was wonderful - but you won't miss any if you don't plan to read this.