The Crux

“[The Crux] will expand Gilman’s relevance to scholars of the American West. . . . Scholars of both feminist and western studies will find . . . The Crux to be of remarkable interest.” - Randi Tanglen , Western American Literature

“[A] very interesting [novel], especially if you are a haunted reader of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’ Reading it is akin to poring over the sketches that (early or late) might surround the full-length work of the one-book writer. It allows us to trace in its pages evidence, scattered throughout, of the talent that ran restless in its author throughout her stormy, stubborn, furiously engaged years, yet flared into fully achieved life but once.” - Vivian Gornick , The Nation

“We are fortunate to have the novel back in print. . . . The novel is especially important for contemporary readers not least because of the ways in which it complicates accounts of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century discourses in gender, sexuality, race, class, and ethnicity in a story that combines motifs of women’s friendship and community with ideological questions about economic independence and reproductive choice.” - Laura Castor , American Studies in Scandinavia

"The Crux is an engaging polemic against Victorian sexual double standards. But rather than offering a narrative of sexual liberation, Gilman calls on readers to sacrifice personal pleasure for the nation. . . . If this doesn't sound like the feminism you know and love, The Crux offers an invaluable education on the darker side of the women's movement. . . . The Crux offers a fascinating look at a specific cultural moment in American history, while also reminding us to think critically about even the most 'progressive' movements." - Lauren Kaminsky , Bust

“What a treat to have another Gilman novel—until now largely ignored—available. We are indebted to Duke University Press for publishing it as a separate piece and to Dana Seitler for her provocative and stimulating introduction. The Crux is in many ways a period piece embodying what today seems outmoded and sometimes outrageous views. Oddly, these same views are also startlingly and wickedly relevant today.” - Ann J. Lane, author of To Herland and Beyond: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman

“With reproductive technologies at the center of feminist, medical, and national debate, The Crux offers a fascinating historical perspective on the relationship of reproduction and nationalism. Dana Seitler's introduction offers a useful context in which to read Charlotte Perkins Gilman's quirky, biology-based feminism, her depiction of a women's community in the west, and, generally, the relationship between fiction-writing and the fashioning of gender roles that fueled Gilman's particular brand of activism.” - Priscilla Wald, author of Constituting Americans: Cultural Anxiety and Narrative Form