Stranger Within The Gates

by Bertha Thomas

First published in 1912, this is a collection of witty, sharply observed short stories which engage with feminism, the "new women" of the 1890s, alongside narratives which explore the personal and emotional conflict experienced by people torn between multiple ethnicities or between different social and national groups. Bertha Thomas lightly but deftly sketches her characters with a sharp eye for humorous and satirical detail. Her stories are by turns Gothic, romantic, humorous, fantastic, and satirical, but always engagingly written.

269 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

Bertha Thomas (1845-1918) was an English novelist and short-story writer.

Reviews

[Johanna]

DFN-ed halfway through. I was just utterly bored, couldn't be bothered to finish it.

[Samuel]

Bertha Thomas’s stories, in this collection, consider Welshness in relation to womanhood and are particularly interesting when thought of in the context of late nineteenth and early twentieth century feminism and the rise of the New Woman and the suffragette movement. Highlights included ‘The Only Girl’, ‘The Way He Went’ and ‘Latest Intelligence from the Planet Venus’.