+-------------------------------------------------+ |Transcriber’s note: | | | |Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | | | +-------------------------------------------------+ _We Women and our Authors_ BY THE SAME AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR MODERN WOMEN: STUDIES OF SONIA KOVALEVSKY, GEORGE EGERTON, ELEONORA DUSE, AMALIE SKRAM, MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF, AND A. CH. EDGREN-LEFFLER. _Uniform with this volume, 3s. 6d. net._ JOHN LANE, LONDON AND NEW YORK WE WOMEN AND OUR AUTHORS [dec] BY LAURA MARHOLM HANSSON [dec] AN ENGLISH RENDERING FROM THE SECOND EDITION OF THE GERMAN WORK, BY HERMIONE RAMSDEN [dec] JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD [dec] LONDON AND NEW YORK [decs] 1899 _All rights reserved_ CONTENTS PAGE WE WOMEN AND OUR AUTHORS 1 GOTTFRIED KELLER AND WOMEN 23 PAUL HEYSE AND THE INCOMMENSURABLE 61 THE AUTHOR IN A CUL-DE-SAC (IBSEN) 80 THE HIGH PRIEST OF PURITY (BJÖRNSON) 100 THE WOMEN-HATERS, TOLSTOY AND STRINDBERG: I. TOLSTOY 132 II. STRINDBERG 146 MAUPASSANT AND THE “FIN DE SIÈCLE” WOMAN 179 BARBEY D’AUREVILLY ON THE MYSTERY OF WOMAN 197 HOW DO WE STAND? 212 _We Women and our Authors_ We German women are accustomed to look upon ourselves as an appendage to or a part of man. Up till now it has been the chief object and the pride of our existence to subordinate ourselves to him, and to look after his comforts. It is so no longer, or at any rate it is not as common as it used to be. Women have begun to ask: Who am I? and not: Whose am I? which proves that they are conscious of their individuality and wish to live their own lives. At present they are only helpless beginners filled with desires, needs and claims, which they themselves do not understand and which they would rather not admit. Their first longing is for outward independence, and in that they are not even original, as the economic conditions of the middle classes have long since forced women to exert themselves to the utmost in order that they may be self-supporting in part, if not entirely. And they are proud and happy when they have succeeded thus far, they fight for it in public and in private life, in the family, in Associations for Women’s Rights, in newspapers, and in books where the movement has advanced the furthest. They fight for the first and rudest basis of their independence, for the right to maintain themselves, which, while it is the lowest step on the way to freedom, is the one that gives them the first title to the possession and disposal of their own selves. It is by no means an aimless struggle, but it is a sad one, in which