4 out of 4 stars
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Mistress Suffragette by Diana Forbes tells the story of Penelope Stanton as she tries to survive in a world built to favor men. Set in the United States shortly after the Panic of 1893, the story focuses on the struggles faced by the Stanton family after the loss of most of their fortune. As it becomes clear that the only man interested in Penelope is already married, her parents push her to become his mistress in order to keep the family afloat. However, unwilling to be sold off to the highest bidder, Penelope flees from her family with the help of her best friend, who pushes her to go with her to a meeting regarding the Rational Dress Movement. While there, Penelope draws the attention of the movement’s leader, Verdana, who offers her a job. As Penelope becomes more involved in the Rational Dress Movement, and, by extension, the Women’s Suffrage Movement, she comes into contact with the same married man yet again. He promises her financial stability, but Penelope knows that that would come at the cost of her reputation, and she has to make a choice between the love she thinks she feels and the movement she knows she aligns with.
There are a lot of things that I absolutely loved about this book. For example, my favorite aspect of this novel was the characters within it. As a whole, all of the characters were full and dynamic; even the most minor characters had personality traits and stories for us to learn. However, these stories were in no way overwhelming. Instead, they were built seamlessly into one of the most interesting narratives I’ve had the privilege of reading. Furthermore, this whole book was extraordinarily well-written and engaging from start to finish. The development of both the plot and the main character was extremely compelling, and the author did an amazing job of giving us insight into the main character and the way in which the time period she lived in operated.
Overall, I found this book to be absolutely phenomenal, and I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in historical fiction and/or the rise of feminism in the United States. In fact, the only person I would not recommend this book to is anyone who is triggered by mentions of sexual assault, which is a recurring theme throughout the novel.
In truth, the only thing that I took issue with in this book was the way the author chose to portray Verdana. Considering the fact that Verdana was the first and only representation of the suffrage movement for both the main character and the reader, I found it problematic that she was mannish, a sexual predator, and (presumably) bisexual. Until Amy Van Buren was introduced, this implied that suffrage leaders sought women’s liberation because they were not sexually attracted to men, that all non-heterosexual women seek to emulate men, and that bisexual people (or, more generally, women who are into women) are sexual predators. While this may not have been an intentional move on the part of the author, I felt that having Verdana meet these unneeded and offensive stereotypes validated these (incorrect) viewpoints and detracted (at least slightly) from the overall story.
I decided to give Mistress Suffragette by Diana Forbes a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. I was only able to find one error in the whole novel, and I struggled to find anything that I did not like about this book. As a result, I feel that this novel deserves an excellent rating.
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Mistress Suffragette
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