Lost Girls: The Invention of the Flapper

by Linda Simon

In the glorious, boozy party after the first World War, a new being burst defiantly onto the world the so-called flapper. Young, impetuous, and flirtatious, she was an alluring, controversial figure, celebrated in movies, fiction, plays, and the pages of fashion magazines. But, as this book argues, she didn’t appear out of nowhere. This spirited, beautifully illustrated history presents a fresh look at the reality of young women’s experiences in America and Britain from the 1890s to the 1920s, when the “modern” girl emerged. Linda Simon shows us how this modern girl bravely created a culture, a look, and a future of her own. Lost Girls is an illuminating history of the iconic flapper as she evolved from a problem to a temptation, and finally, in the 1920s and beyond, to an aspiration.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Historical, American

296 pages, Paperback

Published May 15, 2019

About the author

Linda Simon is Professor of English and Chair of the English Department at Skidmore College in New York, where she has taught since 1997. Previously, she was Director of the Writing Center and at Harvard University. She is the author of biographies of Alice B. Toklas, Thornton Wilder, and Lady Margaret Beaufort, as well as articles in such journals as The New England Quarterly, Salmagundi, and Literature and Philosophy. She teaches literature and nonfiction creative writing and lives in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

First things first this is a very striking (but deceptive cover).

Sure I expected a run up to the jazz age, but I did not think it would span roughly 40 years. You see, if you take in the fact that there is a very long list of source material on the last pages. Add to that all the photos and posters this is a very quick read. A read that is mostly not about the 20s at all.

That being said if you don't know much about the period this will likely be a good starter for you.

[Gretchen Lida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched, thoughtful and full of gender warfare. But it takes almost 200 pages to get to the 1920s. Still worth a read for any feminist with a historic interest.

[Dr Janice Flux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judging by some reviews here, this book lies about its focus, but the subtitle "the invention of the flapper" clearly states that the book is about what led to the flapper and only really focuses on the flapper figure at the end. Exhaustively researched, nicely readable, Simon shows how we got from the late Victorian Era to the flapper, how society focused on youth and infantilized women just as they were moving out of the domestic sphere.

[Katie Fellows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uncomfortable reading but a fantastic social history of the notion of a 'flapper'. Word of advice, I'm never going to be able to look at Mark Twain in the same way, want to know why- read the first couple of chapters!

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a lot, and it was a fascinating look at a whole lot of social and cultural history around the turn of the twentieth century, but (especially coming after the book on cotton that I read before this one) I sometimes grew weary of being so outraged by the "product of their time" primary-source quotes - in this case, appalling views on gender, and on eugenics and "race suicide" and other charmingly awful racist nonsense. Not that the author supported any of it, and obviously it did exist and people said it, it's just... it's exhausting, how awful people have been and can be. And how terrified they've been of young women for such a long time.

Anyway, there were also plenty of primary-source quotes of young ladies saying things like, "You see, we're quite accustomed to the idea that we have ankles and it doesn't seem that shocking for other people to know as well," so fun was also had, and this was a quick, interesting, and nicely put together exploration.

[Lisa Mcbroom · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love the 1920s and was looking forward to reading this but it's a yawner!

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Ben Schulberg offered Elinor Glyn $50,000 to endorse Bow as the ‘It’ girl, embarking on a lecture tour advising girls on how to get the kind of animal magnetism that defined ‘it.’”

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but still interesting nonetheless. It’s very well researched and details the how women and their human rights change at the turn of last century.

[Gary Reger · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're seeking a history of flappers--especially one rife with the salacious mythology that surrounds them--Lost Girls isn't the place to look. Rather, it is a cultural history of the construction of adolescent girlhood and young womanhood in the US and UK between roughly 1890 and 1929. Linda Simon's argument is that many of the stereotypical components of the flapper, who ordinarily is regarded as emerging from the chaos of World War I, were fermenting decades earlier. They never really fully coalesced into a single social type; rather, young women picked and chose from the social roles available to them, and struggled with the competing and strong demands to take a career on the one hand or motherhood on the other. Simon denies that flappers were, typically, wild and sexually liberated (or, as their detractors would say, promiscuous); in many ways the women of the 1910s and 1920s remained conservative.

Simon's source material is mostly literary or visual (movies especially), not surprising for a former English professor. She shows that resistance to new female models and behaviors was strong, even among women; figures like Stanley Hall, author of a 1200-page opus on Adolescence. Its Psychology and its Relation to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education (1904) railed against the New Woman well into the 1920s. The fashions of post-war US and UK were perhaps the clearest markers of flappers, for they demanded slim, boyish figures, as devoid as possible of curves, hips, and breasts. That there was more than a whiff of pedophilia in this suppression of adult womanhood would have been painfully obvious even if Simon had not started with Mark Twain's shocking attraction to girls 10-14, whom he collected like figurines and called his "Angelfish."

It's impossible to read Lost Girls without thinking about analogous pressures and attacks on young women today. Body issues, work vs. motherhood, the desire to be freed from misogynistic social expectations: all persist, many in forms that have hardly changed in 100 years. While there has been progress on many fronts--girls today are not criticized for liking to dance and they can vote--much, sadly, remains of the social repression and misogyny that Simon's Lost Girls faced.

[Sarah Wennerlund · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly fascinating history that spans not just the 1920s, but the 1910s and the 1890s as well. A great read!

[Kit · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping that this book would focus on the flappers of the 1920s and I was sorely disappointed.
Instead too much detail is spent on people whose entire backstories are not needed. For instance, I didn’t need to know the whole history of the psychologist who is described in the first chapter.

An editor was sorely needed for this book, either that or it should have been marketed differently. Considering the 1920s flapper on the cover, I was expecting something quite different.

If you’re looking for a book focused entirely on the Jazz babies, give
Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern by Joshua Zeitz a try.

In the bright side, I did think that it was well written and researched.

[Sandra Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, examining the portrayal & expectations of young women in Western (primarily US) culture and how this changed through the mid 19th - early 20th centuries. This tied in quite neatly with a book I read earlier in December about US & UK suffragettes. And yes, I did get quite angry at old white men and the ridiculous level of privilege they have historically enjoyed.

Ultimately though, I don’t remember an awful lot of this book which feels uncomfortably damning. I think I wished it were a bit longer & had gone into more depth.

[Aila Dominguez Ramonet · Rating 4 out of 5]

No és ben bé el que m’esperava del llibre, ja que només es parla dels anys 20 a les últimes pàgines; però m’ha agradat perquè és un molt bon estudi històric amb perspectiva de genere dels anys abans del 1920 i dels moviments feminites que van tenir lloc.
M’ha encantat la part en la qual es parlava del moviment sufragista.

El recomano!!!

[Susie · Rating 2 out of 5]

In light of current events (Oct 2017) I just couldn't read past the 1st chapter. I mean I was hating Mark Twain... Do as interested as I am in flappers, I'm putting this one down.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting history that gives context to the flapper movement.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of this book is looking at the decades before the Flapper became mainstream, interesting history but not quite what I expected from the cover

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

More about how adolescent girls were viewed and the rise of feminism from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s than about flappers themselves. Still an interesting read!

[Ximena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encantó, este libro le dio vida a mi Roxie Hart.

[Amie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure I would say this is really a story about flappers, bit more a history of the time period.

[Katrin Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

super interesting reading and manages to cover a good deal of the historical context that led to the flapper without ever feeling like an info dump

[Maranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book analyzing the Jazz age flapper in all her glory! The author speaks of flappers from their inception on through the height of fame and even their ongoing appeal. She discusses famous silent film stars and literary flappers, as well as earlier examples of these amazing girls. And who doesn’t love the Peter Pan reference of the title!