The Woman Within

by Ellen Glasgow

Ellen Glasgow was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1873. She received the Gowells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1940, the Southern Authors Prize and the Saturday Review of Literature award for Distinguished Service to American Literature in 1941, and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1942.

Genres: Memoir

319 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

American writer Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow won a Pulitzer Prize for In This Our Life (1941), her realistic historical novel of Virginia.

Born into an upper-class Virginian family, Glasgow at an early age rebelled against traditional expectations of women and authored 20 bestselling novels. Southern settings of the majority of her novels reflect her awareness of the enormous social and economic changes, occurring in the South in the decades before her birth and throughout her own life.

Beginning in 1897, she wrote her novels and many short stories, mainly about life in Virginia.
Glasgow read widely to compensate for her own rudimentary education. She maintained a close lifelong friendship with James Branch Cabell, another notable writer of Richmond. She spent many summers at the historic Jerdone Castle plantation estate of her family in Bumpass, Virginia; this venue reappears in her writings. Her works include: The Descendant (1897), Phases of an Inferior Planet (1898), The Voice of the People (1900), The Battle- Ground (1902), The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields (1904), The Romance of a Plain Man (1909), Virginia (1913), The Builders (1919), The Past (1920), Barren Ground (1925), The Romantic Comedians (1926), They Stooped to Folly (1929), The Sheltered Life (1932), Vein of Iron (1935), In This Our Life (1941).

Reviews

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up Ellen Glasgow before a trip to Richmond, VA. I could find very few notable or interesting southern writers from the 19th century so I was happy to discover her. Born in 1873, at a time when southern tradition had taken a beating after the restoration, she lived during a time of great change including the 20's and two world wars. I first read her novel The Sheltered Life, which I enjoyed and then read this book. I always love discovering new women authors that I like. I will definitely read more of her books. I also had the chance to visit the house in Richmond where she grew up although you can't tour it because it is now a law office.

[Chiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

American female writer Ellen Glasgow talks about her life beginning with her youth in the South. She lived between the US and the UK and mentions rubbing elbows with fellow professional writers. Takes place in the early to mid 20th century. The nostalgic descriptions are reminiscent of childhood and a simpler time.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a native Richmonder, I have been curious for a long while about the famous Ms. Glasgow. However until now I had not read any of her books. Why did I wait so long? I found myself mesmerized by the elegance of her prose. Her word paintings were artful. I often looked up the places she referenced, most of which are either demolished or significantly changed. She reveals a Richmond I will never know.

Her autobiography is rich with pain and pathos. She experienced great loss in her life and dealt with emotional pain until her life ended. Yet she was a woman who loved deeply. Ms. Glasgow also hints at the collective Southern grief experienced by ordinary citizens after the Civil War.

I have another of her books to read. I highly recommend her writing for any serious reader.

[Tom Leland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've only read one of her novels, but now will read more. A life of pain and loss helped shape her into a powerful writer well before American women authors would begin getting the recognition they deserved. She was what we'd now call a feminist when that stance was radical -- all the more extraordinary in that she was from the South. A 1942 winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an autobiography I picked up several months ago at a used book sale to benefit the library. I’ve never read any of Ellen Glasgow’s novels. My only exposure to her writing prior to coming across excerpts from her books in the collection of essays I read. And I’ll be perfectly honest I didn’t read this book word for word. I skimmed some of the very dull passages having to do with her childhood. Her basic character is very pessimistic. All her life she seemed to expect the worst. Parts of the book I could relate to, particularly her travels in England and her visits with British authors. And her struggles with Religion and her personal philosophy, she believed in her own compassion and goodness, but believed most of humanity was cruel. Her struggle to figure out the riddle of life is profound and yet where I have to separate my idea of life is with her pessimism.

[Wallace Hettle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept reading this book for research. An autobiography by a talented southern writer. Published after her death, it is terribly unreliable.