It is a surreal picture: in the distance I can see rather a bizarre collection of women, quite a few in dull-colored Victorian garb with a variety of bonnets, sola topis, and veils; one or two in the heavy habits of the Middle Ages (or even earlier) and several elaborately upholstered in glancing satin finery; there are some in shorts of trousers, perhaps men’s; some in medical or military uniform; now and again there is even the odd flowery sun-dress or flash of Lycra to be seen. There must be well over a hundred altogether, and the noise, although muffled by the distance, is considerable. Each seems to be hauling or tugging at something: some sort of rope, I think, and as I trace the tangling lines I realize that they are all connected to me, sitting here in the foreground. I am perching slightly perilously in a fat and complacent armchair and these women, now hazy against the horizon, are lugging me along in it. I am in, it seems, for quite a ride.
Jane Robinson
Unsuitable for Ladies
Oxford University Press, 1994.
Jane Robinson
Unsuitable for Ladies
Oxford University Press, 1994.
Listen to excerpts from the travel writings of women throughout history, focusing on American and British women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
Francis Trollope Flora Tristan
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