Gallia

by Menie Muriel Dowie

A major exponent of New Woman fiction, Mnie Dowie created a public stir with Gallia in 1895. Young, intelligent and unconventionally frank, Gallia embraces the dictates of reason and shuns the impulses of passion. In her pursuit of a securely logical life, Gallia must also endure the pain of emotional sacrifice inherent in the modern woman's quest for self-fulfillment.

Genres: Classics, Victorian, Fiction

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1895

About the author

Menie Muriel Dowie was an English novelist and travel writer.

She spent her early twenties traveling of which her tour through the Carpathian Mountains in 1890 is most notable. She published her account of that travel in 1892.

Dowie is considered as one of the New Woman writers due to her depiction of sexual relationships.

Dowie was married to Henry Norman who was later made baronet and accused her of adultry with mountaineer Edward Fitzgerald.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, though not quite what I was expecting. Written in 1895 it caused a sensation for it’s frank portrayal of sex and sexual attitudes, and (according to the back cover) was the story of a strong intelligent woman who had to decide whether to give into her emotions or not. I was excited about reading a book by a woman covering these issues that are normally discussed by male authors such as Hardy and Wells. It was however, a very strange little book. The main character didn’t really come across as clever or interesting. Her entire focus was on that of becoming a wife, and when that failed, becoming a mother. What seemed to make Gallia “unique” was her dislike of other women’s company. At times the writing seemed almost misogynistic when discussing how men had “needs” and if a woman were intelligent then it shouldn’t bother her that a lover would be having sex with another woman while engaged (and not having sex) with her. There was also a lot of odd eugenics in the book about how you should either only marry a healthy male, and if he wasn’t then perhaps you should get someone else to father your children (or get pregnant if the woman was weak). It was all very bizarre. The plot was also mostly a romance, despite having a main character that went to Oxford, she seemed to have no desire or drive to do anything with her life (besides become a mother brought about by the guilt over her own mother’s death). She was terribly in love, and despite her would-be-lover loving her back she decided not to marry him as he wasn’t good enough. The writing style was quite inconsistent. Parts were beautiful and hilarious. Other parts it was confusing as to which characters were talking. It was a very quick easy read for a late Victorian novel. It was interesting and I’m glad I read it but I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to read anything else by this author. I have a feeling that we just wouldn’t have gotten on.

[Anjana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This New Woman novel from Britain of 1800, sure gives a general glimpse of the social construct of the era and the bubbles in the bay of normalcy, quietly set off by the 'New', thinking-speaking day to day woman. However, there is not much reference to anything outside the private lives of a few individual characters. But wherever there are, the book reflects a progressiveness of an extreme kind, even for today's standards. The heroine, however, I felt, is only a very faint version of the modern woman, as if the author had, then (in 1895), erred in her calculations on the rate at which feminism and society's attitudes towards it would change in the next 100 years or so.