Published: 2011
It's About: the life and times of Fanny Fern also known as Sara Payson Willis (1811-1872). Unfortunately, Sara was born in a time when women were considered property (or a noose around some man's neck). As a child, Sara's puritan father was convinced that she had a bit of the devil in her and this seems to affect her whole life. She lost many of her closest family members as a young woman and went on to an abusive 2nd marriage. Sara decided to make a bold move and divorce this nasty man when divorce was unheard of and could easily leave a woman and her children destitute. Forced to feed herself and her children, Sara used what she felt was her only profitable skill and began penning articles under the name of Fanny Fern. She was forced to keep her identity hidden as her abusive ex-husband continued to make life hard for her by spreading horrible rumors. People did take notice of Fanny as she began to call for women's rights to earn a living:
An excerpt of Fanny Fern's writing for the Olive Branch on December 6, 1851:
Oh girls! set your affection on cats, poodles, parrots or lap dogs; but let matrimony alone. It's the hardest way on earth of getting a living - you never know when your work is done. Think of carrying eight or nine children through measles, chicken pox, rash, mumps, and scarlet fever, some of 'em twice over; it makes my head ache to think of it. Oh, you may scrimp and save, and twist and turn, and dig and delve, and economise and die, and your husband will marry again, take what you have saved to dress his second wife with, and she'll take your portraits for a fireboard, and,-but, what's the use of talking? I'll warrant every one of you'll try it, the first chance you get! there's a sort of bewitchment about it, somehow. I wish one half the world warn't fools, and the other half idiots, I do. Oh, dear!
Her writing does, at times, seem very angry and bitter However, I feel this excerpt could be misunderstood without knowing that this describes what her father did when her mother died. Fanny writes what she knows and has experienced in her own life.
I Thought: Shame The Devil was eye-opener for me. Fanny's life was in no way an easy one. Her life and this book reminded me of what it would be like for a contemporary woman (any one of us from the stay-at-home mother to the high-powered executive) to be suddenly plunked into the 19th century via time travel. Fanny simply lived before her time. Her light was not allowed to shine.
Recommendation: I did find Shame The Devil fascinating and am glad to have had the opportunity to learn about Fanny Fern. It was a bit of an accidental find for me but I will be using it as a springboard for some research I will be doing of this time period. If you are a fan of historical fiction, this is definitely worth your time.
Fanny Fern (1811-1872)
Sounds like 'Fanny' had a sharply realistic view of life as she knew it. Life as a woman back then was, in many ways, awful. Whenever I think how much fun it would be to have a time machine and be able to travel backwards, I always think yeah, if I were a man.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a terrific review.
I can't tell if this is a fiction or non fiction book but it sounds fascinating. I love that she found a way to make a living for her and her children in a way that was unconventional for women in that time period. I'd really be interested in reading this.
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