Unpunished: A Mystery

Author:   Charlotte Perkins Gilman ,  Catherine Golden ,  Denise D. Knight
Publisher:   Feminist Press at The City University of New York
Edition:   New edition
ISBN:  

9781558611856


Pages:   192
Publication Date:   01 September 1998
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

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Unpunished: A Mystery


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Overview

Written in the late 1920s and never before published, this mystery by the author of such early feminist classics as The Yellow Wall-Paper is a major literary find. Gilman's first and only detective novel recounts the murder of a pernicious attorney who has been shot, stabbed, bludgeoned, strangled, and poisoned. Unpunished's husband-and-wife detective team present a model of true partnership, while the unfolding details of the case offer poignant evidence of the injustice that poor and powerless women can suffer at the hands of a brutal man. Gilman weaves her case for women's freedom and empowerment into a mystery rich in twists and turns, colorful characters, red herrings, suspense and wry humor.

Full Product Details

Author:   Charlotte Perkins Gilman ,  Catherine Golden ,  Denise D. Knight
Publisher:   Feminist Press at The City University of New York
Imprint:   Feminist Press at The City University of New York
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 12.70cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 17.70cm
Weight:   0.255kg
ISBN:  

9781558611856


ISBN 10:   1558611851
Pages:   192
Publication Date:   01 September 1998
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

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Reviews

Sure to delight mystery lovers and anyone interested in the history of early feminism. . . . Gilman weaves [her] overt political message into the story with wit and verve. . . . The book s surprising ending, fast-paced action and endearing detectives make it far more than a valuable historical artifact; it s a smart, entertaining whodunit by a writer who understood (and clearly enjoyed) the genre, even as she put it to polemical use. Publishers Weekly A lively mystery melodrama. Washington Post Book World Gilman was way ahead of her time . . . paving the way for contemporary heroines like Sara Paretsky s V. I. Warshawski and Sue Grafton s Kinsey Milhone. Seattle Weekly A feminist gem from the Golden Age of detective fiction . . . [ Unpunished ] is funny and smart and cleverly plotted, right down to the twist ending. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)


Sure to delight mystery lovers and anyone interested in the history of early feminism. . . . Gilman weaves [her] overt political message into the story with wit and verve. . . . The book's surprising ending, fast-paced action and endearing detectives make it far more than a valuable historical artifact; it's a smart, entertaining whodunit by a writer who understood (and clearly enjoyed) the genre, even as she put it to polemical use. --Publishers Weekly A lively mystery melodrama. --Washington Post Book World Gilman was way ahead of her time . . . paving the way for contemporary heroines like Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone. --Seattle Weekly A feminist gem from the Golden Age of detective fiction . . . [Unpunished] is funny and smart and cleverly plotted, right down to the twist ending. --The Globe and Mail (Toronto)


Not just Unpunished but Unpublished: This 1929 novel by pioneering feminist Gilman is breaking into print for the first time. In outline it reads like a parody of the formal conventions of its age. Criminal lawyer Wade Vaughn has been shot, stabbed, bashed, strangled, and poisoned to death; his household is awash with tormented relatives, resentful servants, and mysterious visitors; the sleuths, Jim and Bessie Hunt, are a breezy husband-and-wife team equally at home donning disguises and compounding felonies. But Gilman ( The Yellow Wallpaper, Herland) obviously has more than fun on her mind. Sadistic blackmailer Vaughn, who toys with his crippled sister-in-law Jacqueline ( Jack ) Warner and his hopeful heirs like a cat with a brace of three blind mice, is a nightmare composite of male monstrosities far too common in Gilman's time, or yesterday; and the Multi-Murder, as the newspapers dub it, is aptly described by a sympathetic neighbor as the nicest murder I ever heard of. The workmanlike plot, which makes room for everyone's homicidal impulses, ends with a revelation of a sixth means of death as absurd as it is emotionally satisfying. Gilman obviously intends horrid Vaughn to be overshadowed by heroic Jack. The most enduring memory readers are likely to take away from her stoic travail wrapped in a cheerful detective fantasy, though, is of a man who was none too good for getting killed five (or was it six?) times. (Kirkus Reviews)


Sure to delight mystery lovers and anyone interested in the history of early feminism. . . . Gilman weaves [her] overt political message into the story with wit and verve. . . . The book's surprising ending, fast-paced action and endearing detectives make it far more than a valuable historical artifact; it's a smart, entertaining whodunit by a writer who understood (and clearly enjoyed) the genre, even as she put it to polemical use. --Publishers Weekly A lively mystery melodrama. --Washington Post Book World Gilman was way ahead of her time . . . paving the way for contemporary heroines like Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone. --Seattle Weekly A feminist gem from the Golden Age of detective fiction . . . [Unpunished] is funny and smart and cleverly plotted, right down to the twist ending. --The Globe and Mail (Toronto)


Author Information

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was a feminist writer, lecturer, and activist, and is best known for The Yellow Wall-Paper. Her many other works include the science fiction trilogy Herland and Women and Economics.

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