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What Diantha Did
This edition of What Diantha Did makes newly available Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s first novel, complete with an in-depth introduction. First published serially in Gilman’s magazine The Forerunner in 1909–10, the novel tells the story of Diantha Bell, a young woman who leaves her home and her fiancé to start a housecleaning business. A resourceful heroine, Diantha quickly expands her business into an enterprise that includes a maid service, cooked food delivery service, restaurant, and hotel. By assigning a cash value to women’s “invisible” work, providing a means for the well-being and moral uplift of working girls, and releasing middle-class and leisure-class women from the burden of conventional domestic chores, Diantha proves to her family and community the benefits of professionalized housekeeping. In her introduction to the novel, Charlotte J. Rich highlights Gilman’s engagement with such hotly debated Progressive Era issues as the “servant question,” the rise of domestic science, and middle-class efforts to protect and aid the working girl. She illuminates the novel’s connections to Gilman’s other feminist works, including “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and Herland; to her personal life; and to her commitment to women’s social and economic freedom. Rich contends that the novel’s engagement with class and race makes it particularly significant to the newly complex understanding of Gilman that has emerged in recent scholarship. What Diantha Did provides essential insight into Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s important legacy of social thought.
200 pages, Hardcover
Published June 8, 2005
About the author
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
1,227 books2,498 followersCharlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), also known as Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was a prominent American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist during a time when her accomplishments were exceptional for women, and she served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle. Her best remembered work today is her semi-autobiographical short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", which she wrote after a severe bout of post-partum depression.
She was the daughter of Frederic B. Perkins.
She was the daughter of Frederic B. Perkins.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 12, 2020
Diantha Bell es una joven californiana que, además de trabajar como profesora en una escuela, cuando llega a casa tras una agotadora jornada, tiene que ayudar a su madre enferma en las tareas del hogar y, en especial, hacer pan para su padre. Lleva seis meses comprometida con Ross Warden, un apuesto y altivo muchacho que a la muerte de su padre tuvo que abandonar su sueño de ser médico para dedicarse a regentar una tienda de ultramarinos que arrastra numerosas deudas y cuidar y mantener a su madre y hermanas.
Cuando Diantha anuncia que abandona su trabajo en la escuela para irse del pueblo a iniciar un negocio en otro lugar, todos quedan estupefactos. De nada le sirve decir que lo hace para ganar dinero con el que proporcionar a su madre una cómoda vejez y ayudar a Ross a salir adelante y casarse cuanto antes.
El padre es de los que piensan que “la mujer debe quedarse en casa” y que Diantha se vaya de casa faltando a sus “obligaciones familiares” es una auténtica deshonra; y su hermana le espeta que lo que gana como docente es más que suficiente “para una mujer”. La reacción de Ross no podría ser peor. Incapaz a pesar de su edad de dejar a un lado las viejas y rancias tradiciones sobre las “obligaciones” del hombre hacia la mujer, el que su esposa trabajase supondría un “reproche directo” hacia su persona. De hecho, le deja bien claro que jamás viviría a costa de su dinero y que “ningún hombre que se considere hombre se casaría con una mujer y le dejaría llevar su negocio”.
Pero Diantha ya ha tomado una heroica decisión, y nada ni nadie podrá detenerla…
La norteamericana Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), activista en la lucha por los derechos de la mujer, intenta demostrar, como hizo en sus otras novelas y relatos, que sus teorías socioeconómicas feministas podían hacerse realidad. En esta ocasión aborda temas que siguen siendo actuales: la igualdad de hombres y mujeres en el seno del hogar, el reconocimiento de las labores domésticas como un trabajo que debe ser remunerado, la independencia económica de la mujer y el acceso a un trabajo fuera del ámbito familiar, la conciliación laboral y el cuidado de los hijos, la mujer como emprendedora y jefa de su propia empresa, la profesionalización del servicio doméstico, la sororidad, etc.
Me ha gustado, aunque las partes en que la protagonista expone las cuestiones económicas de sus propuestas, etc., son bastante pesadas... Como dicen en la introducción, en realidad no estamos ante una novela, sino que se trata de un ensayo novelado. Pero vamos, que me ha gustado y resultado interesante.
Cuando Diantha anuncia que abandona su trabajo en la escuela para irse del pueblo a iniciar un negocio en otro lugar, todos quedan estupefactos. De nada le sirve decir que lo hace para ganar dinero con el que proporcionar a su madre una cómoda vejez y ayudar a Ross a salir adelante y casarse cuanto antes.
El padre es de los que piensan que “la mujer debe quedarse en casa” y que Diantha se vaya de casa faltando a sus “obligaciones familiares” es una auténtica deshonra; y su hermana le espeta que lo que gana como docente es más que suficiente “para una mujer”. La reacción de Ross no podría ser peor. Incapaz a pesar de su edad de dejar a un lado las viejas y rancias tradiciones sobre las “obligaciones” del hombre hacia la mujer, el que su esposa trabajase supondría un “reproche directo” hacia su persona. De hecho, le deja bien claro que jamás viviría a costa de su dinero y que “ningún hombre que se considere hombre se casaría con una mujer y le dejaría llevar su negocio”.
Pero Diantha ya ha tomado una heroica decisión, y nada ni nadie podrá detenerla…
La norteamericana Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), activista en la lucha por los derechos de la mujer, intenta demostrar, como hizo en sus otras novelas y relatos, que sus teorías socioeconómicas feministas podían hacerse realidad. En esta ocasión aborda temas que siguen siendo actuales: la igualdad de hombres y mujeres en el seno del hogar, el reconocimiento de las labores domésticas como un trabajo que debe ser remunerado, la independencia económica de la mujer y el acceso a un trabajo fuera del ámbito familiar, la conciliación laboral y el cuidado de los hijos, la mujer como emprendedora y jefa de su propia empresa, la profesionalización del servicio doméstico, la sororidad, etc.
Me ha gustado, aunque las partes en que la protagonista expone las cuestiones económicas de sus propuestas, etc., son bastante pesadas... Como dicen en la introducción, en realidad no estamos ante una novela, sino que se trata de un ensayo novelado. Pero vamos, que me ha gustado y resultado interesante.
April 16, 2020
Excelente narración de un feminismo profundo, razonado, cotidiano y real.
La decisión que toma Diantha es llevar hasta el final una tesis que tiene clara la autora: el servicio doméstico que lleva siglos realizando la mujer sin que se le dé opción a elegir otra cosa, ha de profesionalizarse para que cada una pueda decidir, por fin, a qué quiere dedicar su vida. Diantha presenta desde el principio todo un análisis de los trabajos a realizar, con su coste en tiempo y salario, de manera que su propósito queda como algo tan lógico y bien planeado que no haya manera de ponerle pegas ni desde el punto de vista comercial, ni laboral, ni económico. Los únicos monstruos con los que tendrá que luchar a brazo partido la heroína son los prejuicios sociales y las tradiciones más absurdas y arraigadas.
Como libro de tesis me ha parecido perfecto, aunque le pongo la pega del idealismo blandengue y de pintarlo todo tan limpio y bien cuadrado: todo le sale bien a la protagonista, una especie de trabajadora perfeccionista, incansable y maravillosa que, a pesar de sus momentos de desánimo, es capaz de, con solo la fuerza de su trabajo perfectamente organizado y realizado, hacer cambiar de opinión incluso a su tradicional y archi machista amado. El final feliz es previsible y algo ñoño.
Personalmente, la parte de las detalladas cuentas, tiempos de cada tarea, salarios, menús, intendencia de suministros, etc., me ha llegado a aburrir. Pero como mujer empatizas rápidamente con Diantha y su decisión, y te alegras, y asombras, de la capacidad visionaria de esta autora.
La decisión que toma Diantha es llevar hasta el final una tesis que tiene clara la autora: el servicio doméstico que lleva siglos realizando la mujer sin que se le dé opción a elegir otra cosa, ha de profesionalizarse para que cada una pueda decidir, por fin, a qué quiere dedicar su vida. Diantha presenta desde el principio todo un análisis de los trabajos a realizar, con su coste en tiempo y salario, de manera que su propósito queda como algo tan lógico y bien planeado que no haya manera de ponerle pegas ni desde el punto de vista comercial, ni laboral, ni económico. Los únicos monstruos con los que tendrá que luchar a brazo partido la heroína son los prejuicios sociales y las tradiciones más absurdas y arraigadas.
Como libro de tesis me ha parecido perfecto, aunque le pongo la pega del idealismo blandengue y de pintarlo todo tan limpio y bien cuadrado: todo le sale bien a la protagonista, una especie de trabajadora perfeccionista, incansable y maravillosa que, a pesar de sus momentos de desánimo, es capaz de, con solo la fuerza de su trabajo perfectamente organizado y realizado, hacer cambiar de opinión incluso a su tradicional y archi machista amado. El final feliz es previsible y algo ñoño.
Personalmente, la parte de las detalladas cuentas, tiempos de cada tarea, salarios, menús, intendencia de suministros, etc., me ha llegado a aburrir. Pero como mujer empatizas rápidamente con Diantha y su decisión, y te alegras, y asombras, de la capacidad visionaria de esta autora.
September 16, 2023
Diantha ist eine junge Frau, die ihr eigene Unternehmen aufbauen möchte, obwohl dies zu ihrer Zeit völlig ungewöhnlich ist und sie sowohl bei ihrem Verlobten, als auch bei ihrer Familie auf Unverständnis und Ablehnung stößt.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman hat diesen Roman 1910 geschrieben und obwohl er an einigen Stellen sprachlich aus der Zeit gefallen ist, ist finanzielle Selbständigkeit tatsächlich eine Grundlage für die Unabhängigkeit von Frauen ( natürlich für jeden, aber im Buch geht es nunmal um eine Frau).
Das immerhin 26 seitiges Nachwort von Petra Schaper Rinkel fand ich nicht uninteressant, nur wollte ich gern mehrfach ausrufen : es ist ein Roman und nicht wirklich ein politisches Manifest…
Charlotte Perkins Gilman hat diesen Roman 1910 geschrieben und obwohl er an einigen Stellen sprachlich aus der Zeit gefallen ist, ist finanzielle Selbständigkeit tatsächlich eine Grundlage für die Unabhängigkeit von Frauen ( natürlich für jeden, aber im Buch geht es nunmal um eine Frau).
Das immerhin 26 seitiges Nachwort von Petra Schaper Rinkel fand ich nicht uninteressant, nur wollte ich gern mehrfach ausrufen : es ist ein Roman und nicht wirklich ein politisches Manifest…
August 23, 2014
I read this through Mousehold Words, so that I could get some sense of what it would have been like to read this book in serial form, as it was originally published. Perhaps reading it chapter by chapter, over a longish period of time, gave me a different sense of the arc of the story than I would have had reading this slim thing in one sitting.
In any case, I came away with a vexed relationship to the book and the ideas it proposes.
Things I enjoyed:
*How the book details, down to the penny, the unpaid domestic work that women did (and often, still do), and how it makes arguments for the acknowledgment of the worth of that labor.
*How the novel represents the varied and numerous sources of backlash to Diantha as she disrupts the status quo regarding domestic work. Family, religion, women's social clubs, newspapers--everyone gets in on casting aspersions on Diantha's moral character. Gilman does an excellent job of showing how the norms around gender and labor get reinforced and policed.
Things that made me say, hrm... really?:
*The representation of immigrants and people of color in the book. There's one particular scene involving a black woman who ends up working in Diantha's business that was outright cringe-worthy. I know this was written in 1909, but some of the stereotypes around race and ethnicity that the book uses still hold so much sway.
*
In any case, I came away with a vexed relationship to the book and the ideas it proposes.
Things I enjoyed:
*How the book details, down to the penny, the unpaid domestic work that women did (and often, still do), and how it makes arguments for the acknowledgment of the worth of that labor.
*How the novel represents the varied and numerous sources of backlash to Diantha as she disrupts the status quo regarding domestic work. Family, religion, women's social clubs, newspapers--everyone gets in on casting aspersions on Diantha's moral character. Gilman does an excellent job of showing how the norms around gender and labor get reinforced and policed.
Things that made me say, hrm... really?:
*The representation of immigrants and people of color in the book. There's one particular scene involving a black woman who ends up working in Diantha's business that was outright cringe-worthy. I know this was written in 1909, but some of the stereotypes around race and ethnicity that the book uses still hold so much sway.
*
March 26, 2009
I must say that I was really scared that this story would turn out badly (i.e. Diantha giving up her work), but I am so relieved that everything is resolved between her and Ross. I really was worried up to the last few pages that Ross was going to be a jerk for the rest of his life. What a relief! I believe the author did an excellent job of tying up all of the loose ends on this story. It was also coincidental that I was listening to the book Loving Frank by Nancy Horan this week. It is a novel about Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright (excellent book, despite being such a tragic story). Mamah was involved with the sufferage and women movements and Charlotte Perkins Gilman is mentioned several times in the book... What Diantha Did is subtley referenced as well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 29, 2018
Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an excellent writer. Her stories are interesting and compelling, and her philosophy is whole and promotes the good life.
My goal for 2018 is to read her complete work.
My goal for 2018 is to read her complete work.
December 3, 2022
There's only one thing I have to say about this book: "Where have you been all my life?"
P.S. Ross could live a hundred lifetimes and still never deserve Diantha.
#teamMrEltwood
P.S. Ross could live a hundred lifetimes and still never deserve Diantha.
#teamMrEltwood
June 2, 2023
Absurdly radical for it's time, this book literally take the invisible work of women and shows the value. Diantha stands for us all in her fight against the role that women were expected to be complacent with. She is a likeable heroine of her own script. Unfortunately, even after more then a century this book is still a necessary tool to answer the age old question commonly asked to women who work from and maintain the home "Well what did you do ALL day?" Women's labour and emotional work is valuable without it the world wouldn't go around.
Read
June 12, 2010I just finished this 1910 novel about a young lady who wants to rethink the costliness of housework, contribute to her family economy and have a fulfilling job all of her own. At 21 years old she leaves her family of origin and gets a job as a maid in fictional California suburb/ vacation spot of "Orchardina." While she is there, she challenges the wastefulness of so many homes having their own servants and preparing individual meals, and argues that if all the town bought food wholesale, the maids would all be better paid and the families would all save a lot of money. So, she starts her own cooperative eating house ("Union House") and makes it happen. Right when her venture begins to take off, her fiance (back in her home town) surprises her and says that he finally has accrued enough money to support her. He wants her to give up her work.. .... I don't want to give away the rest, but Perkins Gilman is so beautifully nuanced.
It was absolutely wonderful and left me in tears of satisfaction (just as Charlotte Perkins Gilman would have wanted). Gilman's version of socialism is so beautifully cooperative--"congenial" for all--and works out so that both the richest lady and the poorest Irish servants/ African American servants are all making more money and working fewer hours than they did before. Perkins Gilman seems to have been a lot more optimistic about the future for women in 1910 than she did in 1892, when the "Yellow Wallpaper" made its debut. And yet, why is she overwhelmingly remembered for this earlier piece?
This beautiful novella further inspires me to write my dissertation about these OTHER socialists (in this instance, "nationalists")--the people who wanted matters of economics socialized but didn't think they had to have class warfare to make it happen, and didn't even think that rich people had to lose anything for poor people to be much better off.
It was absolutely wonderful and left me in tears of satisfaction (just as Charlotte Perkins Gilman would have wanted). Gilman's version of socialism is so beautifully cooperative--"congenial" for all--and works out so that both the richest lady and the poorest Irish servants/ African American servants are all making more money and working fewer hours than they did before. Perkins Gilman seems to have been a lot more optimistic about the future for women in 1910 than she did in 1892, when the "Yellow Wallpaper" made its debut. And yet, why is she overwhelmingly remembered for this earlier piece?
This beautiful novella further inspires me to write my dissertation about these OTHER socialists (in this instance, "nationalists")--the people who wanted matters of economics socialized but didn't think they had to have class warfare to make it happen, and didn't even think that rich people had to lose anything for poor people to be much better off.
March 9, 2013
This book is boring, I don't like the writing style, and I'm too immature to read a book with characters named Mr. and Mrs. Porne. Maybe if the book were better I would be able to get over it, but it's not so I can't.
June 9, 2023
3.5
i REALLY liked it, but it's not great literature. i REALLY REALLY liked it, but i did not love it as a piece of writing. i really, thoroughly enjoyed it, but some parts, the parts that were supposed to be evidence for the author's thesis, were not as enjoyable as the rest of the book was...
this is committed literature, political literature, ideological literature, but at its finest. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is humorous and witty and a great writer and intelligent and compassionate and smart and clever and she has an uncanny gift for seeing the breaks in the absurd gender relations that order (and disorder) our world. but politically and ideologically committed literature that intends to teach and enlighten and proffer solutions to the problems that it cleverly and delightfully identifies, cannot be great literature... it cannot even be a great read, after a while, or, as in this case, consistently: the chapters that focused on the characters were great, the parts that sought to convince us of the plausibility and logic of the author's experiment, flagged... but, if you are highly interested in the experiment, you are not bored or upset by it, you're just engaged in a different level, not a literary but a social science/political activism level...
also, this is the worst named book ever... what a horrible name!!!
i REALLY liked it, but it's not great literature. i REALLY REALLY liked it, but i did not love it as a piece of writing. i really, thoroughly enjoyed it, but some parts, the parts that were supposed to be evidence for the author's thesis, were not as enjoyable as the rest of the book was...
this is committed literature, political literature, ideological literature, but at its finest. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is humorous and witty and a great writer and intelligent and compassionate and smart and clever and she has an uncanny gift for seeing the breaks in the absurd gender relations that order (and disorder) our world. but politically and ideologically committed literature that intends to teach and enlighten and proffer solutions to the problems that it cleverly and delightfully identifies, cannot be great literature... it cannot even be a great read, after a while, or, as in this case, consistently: the chapters that focused on the characters were great, the parts that sought to convince us of the plausibility and logic of the author's experiment, flagged... but, if you are highly interested in the experiment, you are not bored or upset by it, you're just engaged in a different level, not a literary but a social science/political activism level...
also, this is the worst named book ever... what a horrible name!!!
June 19, 2023
The premise of this novel was what grabbed my attention. It sounded very feminist and forward thinking for its time, and that turned out to be true. Unfortunately the execution was not quite one I liked. Many of the characters were relatively flat. Even Diantha wasn't fleshed out enough as the main protagonist. But my main pet peeve was the clinical nature of some parts of the story. Diantha left her hometown to set up a business in another town. There were numerous places where costs of labor or products were spelled out in minute detail or the business plan regarding set up of the housing for her employees were laid out too exhaustively. For a fiction novel, it was too detailed in these descriptions and it detracted from the human interest side of the narrative.
August 4, 2018
I really enjoyed this book for what it was, an interesting portrayal of a woman who took a chance and did what was necessary to even the playing field between women, the poor and the rich. I'm sad that it's not a true story, but it's a great tribute to women who have worked and dedicated their time to this worthy cause.
May 8, 2020
Gegen die Konventionen ihrer Zeit und gegen den Willen ihres Verlobten baut die junge Diantha Bell sich nach und nach ein erfolgreiches Unternehmen auf. Eine inspirierende Geschichte, vom mandelbaum verlag wird die deutsche Ausgabe in einem wunderschön gestalteten Umschlag präsentiert. Leider überzeugen Übersetzung und Lektorat nicht durchgehend. Trotzdem eine Leseempfehlung!
August 5, 2026
Team Mr Eltwood!! I finally know what diantha did. This was so hard to get through. My series of autobiographical books titled “What _____ Fucking Did” about a different person in my life for each book will be much more thrilling.
May 5, 2021
Career woman meets 7th Heaven meets Ayn Rand with some half-hearted unionising thrown in.
February 6, 2023
(2.5/5)
August 10, 2026
An important part of literary history.
September 13, 2014
it must've been a serendipity to have it saved in my ebook app and my at my age where a girl starts undertaking household tasks!!!
all the household task you thought you would never do are performed and appreciated here and even elevated as an enterprise.. and the work has been easy...
I'm thankful to the character "Diantha" for her fortitude, conscience, knowledge and ability. for me it wasn't just a story. it was a scientific study, the truth and reality.
thats not all. what I was moved at when her fiance, despite his disapproval of her profession, loved her deeply and had accepted her without complain or criticism but silent protests in his loving eyes.
all the household task you thought you would never do are performed and appreciated here and even elevated as an enterprise.. and the work has been easy...
I'm thankful to the character "Diantha" for her fortitude, conscience, knowledge and ability. for me it wasn't just a story. it was a scientific study, the truth and reality.
thats not all. what I was moved at when her fiance, despite his disapproval of her profession, loved her deeply and had accepted her without complain or criticism but silent protests in his loving eyes.
April 1, 2018
Inspiring. Old. Surface-level.
July 14, 2012
Always untangling the troubles of gender inequalities, Charlotte Perkins Gilman shines above many with practical examples of the problems, contradictions, and tragedies. Perhaps all the solutions aren't unfeasible, especially in a modern age, but some really are worth keeping in mind if not cherishing.
July 7, 2009
This started out good, but turned out disappointing about half way through. I couldn't finish it.
Want to Read
September 14, 2011
Want to Read
March 11, 2013ebook
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews