Benigna Machiavelli
In between "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) and Herland (1915), feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) wrote and published this delightful fictional autobiography, Benigna Machiavelli (1914), in her monthly magazine, The Forerunner.
The narrator, young Benigna MacAvelly, decides as a child that she intends to emulate her ancestor Niccolò Machiavelli but dedicate her machinations to doing good rather than evil. She starts her ingenious plotting very early in life (for example, as an 11-year-old, she enlists her classmates in an elaborate money-raising scheme to buy a new watch for an impoverished teacher), and moves on to larger goals as she gets older. Her most significant challenge is her domineering father. Determined to liberate her downtrodden mother from his verbal abuse, Benigna concocts an elaborate plan to deal with him and restore her mother's self-confidence. (Summary by Winnifred Assmann)
Genre(s): Fictional Biographies & Memoirs
Language: English
Section | Chapter | Reader | Time |
---|---|---|---|
Play 01 | Chapter I | Winnifred Assmann |
00:29:38 |
Play 02 | Chapter II | Winnifred Assmann |
00:30:40 |
Play 03 | Chapter III | Winnifred Assmann |
00:27:23 |
Play 04 | Chapter IV | Winnifred Assmann |
00:31:08 |
Play 05 | Chapter V | Winnifred Assmann |
00:27:42 |
Play 06 | Chapter VI | Winnifred Assmann |
00:33:48 |
Play 07 | Chapter VII | Winnifred Assmann |
00:29:31 |
Play 08 | Chapter VIII | Winnifred Assmann |
00:28:33 |
Play 09 | Chapter IX | Winnifred Assmann |
00:28:06 |
Play 10 | Chapter X | Winnifred Assmann |
00:28:53 |
Play 11 | Chapter XI | Winnifred Assmann |
00:29:06 |
Play 12 | Chapter XII | Winnifred Assmann |
00:24:14 |