What Did Miss Darrington See?: An Anthology of Feminist Supernatural Fiction [Paperback]

Jessica Amanda Salmonson (Editor), Rosemary Jackson (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1989 | ISBN-10: 1558610065 | ISBN-13: 978-1558610064 | Edition: 1st

   This collection of 24 entertaining and haunting 19th-and 20th-century tales from the U.S., Britain, and Latin America reclaims a literary tradition that has long been overlooked. Using such techniques as magic realism, allegory, and surrealism, the authors re-imagine the cliches of supernatural fiction, focusing on female characters and treating traditional themes in inventive and provocative ways. Among the authors included are Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Luisa Valenzuela, Leonora Carrington, Barbara Burford, and Joanna Russ. 1989 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FOR BEST LESBIAN SCIENCE FICTION / FANTASY

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A woman bumps into her imaginary childhood companion at the airport; telepathy bridges the 5000 miles and a generation gap that separate a rural German housewife and a Chicago college student; an overweight black girl soars to freedom in her dreams; a conservative Edwardian woman is urged to marry by her future daughter, a flapper; the Virgin Mary invites the caresses of a black man; a hyena tries to pass as a debutante; a middle-aged professional meets, and learns to accept and cherish, the needy child within her. Salmonson, a seasoned writer and anthologist of fantasy and the supernatural, gathers 24 stories, written between 1850 and 1988, by U.S., English and Latin American women. While occasionally archaic or conventional in format, the selections are a superb introduction to the vast, often obscured supernatural genre in its varied permutations: Gothic romance, ghost story, allegory, etc. This searching documentation of female alienation and suppression persuasively demonstrates how supernatural fiction intentionally subverts patriarchal notions, and links the literature to the constancy of feminist social and political struggle.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

According to Salmonson, for the last two hundred years, though women were the primary writers (and, therefore, developers) of supernatural fiction-a category that includes but is not limited to horror-support from the male-dominated publishing world has been almost exclusively for work written by males. As evidence, the period and current anthologies referenced contain between zero and ten percent female contributors. Salmonson's secondary thesis, that women used this medium to sustain and transmit feminist traditions, is regrettably not given enough space and attention to be proven. On the other hand, the thesis of Jackson's introduction, which is that only feminist writers were able to interject sensitivity into a supernatural story, is blatantly false. The authors were selected for their feminist activities, the stories for their literary quality. Salmonson has provided a note before each story to introduce the author: a necessary action for those authors whose work has gone out of print. The stories are all of high quality; the older ones are period, but not dated. The dates of publication range Erom 1850 through 1988. Modem authors with recognizable, award-winning names from the science-fiction field include Joanna Russ, Phyllis Eisenstein, and Lisa Tuttle. Salmonson never explains her choice of an order for the stories, but it works well. I would have placed the introduction as an afterword, however, and I strongly recommend reading it after the stories. This suggestion is due neither to Jackson's thesis nor to her warping the stories to make them present a single, supporting viewpoint~ but rather to her revealing plot elements, thus diminishing most of the stories when they are encountered later. This book is an excellent source of new-to-the-reader supernatural stories, and it also provides many thought-provoking ideas on the changing status of feminist creative writings. -- From Independent Publisher --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY; 1st edition (January 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558610065
• ISBN-13: 978-1558610064
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #627,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Feminist Supernatural Fiction from the 1850s to the Present, July 7, 2000

By 

vikkiml (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Did Miss Darrington See?: An Anthology of Feminist Supernatural Fiction (Paperback)

Salmonson selects twenty-four supernatural stories written by women over the past 150 years. Many of these selections focus on a woman protagonist who, contrary to stereotype, keeps her head when confronted with fantastic sightings and happenings. For instance, in Lady Eleanor Smith's 1932 tale "Tamar," pits a gypsy woman against the devil himself. The more recent "A Friend in Need" addresses the issues of child abuse and the support women can offer other women without becoming pedagogical. Instead, the issues are woven into a tale of what seems to be an imaginary childhood friendship.

"What Did Miss Darrington See?" should be read by all connoisseurs of supernatural and science fiction as well as by anyone researching feminist literature.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful stories of real women, January 7, 2010

By 

Patti J. Phillips "Jeannie" (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What Did Miss Darrington See?: An Anthology of Feminist Supernatural Fiction (Paperback)

Firstly, I can not say enough about how good this book was.If you are a woman or even know a woman and are interested to know what her experiences are like to be a woman you can't go wrong with this book.
The stories were scary-some of them-but more important they really portrayed what it was like to be a woman 100 years ago to the present day.
This book reminded me of the experience of sitting down with your best female friend and sharing wine with her and talking through the night about what your life has been like since you two parted.
If you have ever sat down with a woman and had a long and very deep conversation with her them this is what the book will remind you of.
I loved this book and think it's one of the best collections of stories out there for woman or men who are sympathetic towards women and their issues.
One thing is not to read the whole introduction before you read the stories.I would not do this because it gives some of the specialness away.Read it after the stories.
Also, read them in order.There is a certain beauty in the way they are told in order.
I won't go into all the individual stories because I want them to be a surprise for you but some points to make a on the following:The title work is wonderful.Talk about a strong successful woman.She was someone who was NOT a victim spinsterhood.She chose her independence over love and marriage.Talk about a woman who created her own destiny that was not dependent on any man like so many woman were at the time.I fell in love with her.I am also sure that there were quite a few woman in 1870 who were like her but we don't hear about them.We hear about the 'uselessness' of a woman if she was not a wife and mother.That is something that I have seen over and over again in the male as well as the female writers of the period.A woman at the time only had worth if she was beautiful.She was an ornament to a man and that's all.
A Friend in Need is a story about a woman meeting her childhood invisible friend at the airport.Or is she?
Attachment was a terrifying story of the attachment between two women in different parts of the world and what happens when one is sick.
The Sixth Canvessar I found chilling.I still have a great fear of death and dying so watching this woman go through the horror of life right before death I found almost unreadable.
Tamar was wonderful.If you have ever rooted for the bag guy/gal then this is a story that you will love.I found my self rooting her on into the most vile things.But I could also see her as a victim of her times and station so I had great sympathy for her.
The Teacher is a horrifying tale built on the male view of woman as virtue and what happens when she is a normal,flesh woman and not this ideal that this poor, stupid man thought.

Three Dreams in the Desert just has to be read to be appreciated.
The Fall is a welcome sacrilegious story of the Virgin Mary and her escape of her role.I loved it even though it turned my stomach a little and I am not Christian.I thought that it was a brave and noble story.
The Doll is another chilling story about the ornamentation of a very young wife and the subsequent freeing of her from entrapment from a man.
I have to say that I found The Debutant a scream.I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.
Clay-shuttered Doors is again about a woman not allowed to die peacefully but kept alive by a man's selfishness.
And finally Since I Died is a beautiful story of love and loss.The tenderness that the one woman feels for the other made me cry.I deeply felt her loss of her loved one.
One of the other very good things about this but aside from the stories is the reading list in the back and also the little blurb about the author's before the start of their stories.
I think this is the longest review that I have ever wrote but thought that this book was worth the time and effort.I will be doing a lot of further reading by these author's in the future and I hope that when you read this book you will find it just as special as I did.