Paperback Edition
ISBN: 9781558610156
Publication Date: 07-01-1989

Afterword by Margaret Morganroth Gullette

This brilliantly witty novel, first published in 1894, is as fresh as if it had appeared yesterday. The novel follows two sisters in a wealthy Scots family and tells the story of the power of marriage and family to control the life of Hadia, who vows to become a composer in Paris but is thwarted by claims of domesticity and her mother's crippling dependency, and her sister who escapes to a profession in London and eventually a decent marriage.

"Feminists of the 1890s have much to say to feminists of the 1990s. The extraordinary detective work and critical acumen of Margaret Gullette have restored Mona Caird's The Daughters of Danaus to the canon of 'New Women' literature. The Daughters of Danaus is an important and welcome edition." —Elaine Showalter, author of Toward a Feminist Poetics

"Mona Caird is a treasure in whose rediscovery we can truly rejoice. Caird, her heroine Hadria, and her editor Margaret Gullette, speak eloquently of women's strengths we can emulate." —Mary Anne Ferguson, author of Images of Women in Literature

"I am delighted that the Feminist Press is publishing this important and highly readable book by a pivotal fin-de-siècle feminist. Critics have too long neglected the important role played by women authors in establishing the terms of the debate for both literature and feminism during the 1890s. The publication of The Daughters of Danaus should help to rectify this situation." —Martha Vicinus, author of Intimate Friends