Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Herland Meets Ourland

A young woman named Ellador discovers our world. What she discovers, how she finds it and what she thinks about it is the story the philosopher and writer Charlotte Perkins told in her 1916 serial novel With her in Ourland. She describes how Ellador, together with her first great love Van, leaves her home in Herland and sets off for a much harsher reality. With her in Ourland, Gilman has taken her 1915 story Herland further. And by confronting the matriarchal Herland with the patriarchal Ourland, she exposes the trouble spots of our society. Religion, war, sexism are just some of the topics addressed. Packed into a love story, Gilman makes society more social.