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Audiobook edition · 6 h 10 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a woman choose freely when no one tells her what she needs to know?
Vivian Lane grows up in New England, where girls are taught to wait, be pleasant, and be chosen. Colorado offers her a different life, in a town where old customs hold less firmly. Several men take an interest in her, but new freedom brings a harder task: deciding what she wants from marriage, and what she owes herself.
In The Crux, Charlotte Perkins Gilman brings love into conflict with judgment. Morton Elder, the charming man Vivian already loves, stands at the center of her hardest choice. Through short scenes and long conversations, Gilman asks what happens when women are kept dependent and denied knowledge that could shape the rest of their lives.
What you’ll discover
- A life beyond waiting Follow Vivian from a home built around marriage toward the possibility of choosing for herself.
- New rules in Colorado Enter a Western town where people from many places loosen the hold of old customs.
- Charm against clear judgment Meet Morton Elder, whose place in Vivian’s heart makes her decision far from simple.
- The right to know Face the question of what a woman must know before she binds herself to a man.
- Fiction with a purpose Explore Gilman’s plain, forceful argument about economic dependence and its reach into women’s intimate choices.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like stories of women finding their own work and voice, lively old ladies, small-town gossip, Western boarding houses, and novels that take a clear stand on how people should live.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Quiet Girl Hears a Scandal Next Door
- Nine Years Later, Vivian Still Waits
- A Doctor Offers a Way Out
- Grandmother Joins the Journey West
- The Cottonwoods Fills With Boarders
- Morton Comes Back
- Mrs. St. Cloud Arrives Again
- Kindness Wins a Watchful Ally
- What the Story Is Really About
Who’s who
- Vivian LaneA thoughtful New England daughter, twenty-five, who longs for work with children and for a life that is truly her own.
- Mrs. Servilla PettigrewVivian's sharp, silent, quietly bold grandmother, who knits bright sweaters and decides to travel West and watch over her.
- Dr. Jane BellairA strong woman physician who persuades a small town's women to move West and wants girls to know the dangers of marriage.
- Morton ElderA charming, restless young man sent away from college, who returns and courts the girl he once kissed under the lilacs.
- Orella ElderMorton's gentle schoolteacher aunt, who finds a new energy and new friends when she takes over a Colorado boardinghouse.
- Susie ElderMorton's cheerful younger sister and Vivian's best friend, who enjoys the crowd of admirers she finds in the West.
- Dr. Richard HaleA stern, skilled doctor who keeps a comfortable home for lonely young men and wants nothing to do with women.
- Mrs. St. CloudA graceful, veiled lady who gathers admirers and talks of friendship and uplifting influence.
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Le Nœud : un roman in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Le Nœud : un roman
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman · 1911
A New England girl follows a doctor and her grandmother West, hoping to find work and a life of her own.
Easy read5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What does a young woman owe to love when she learns what it could cost her children? In The Crux, Charlotte Perkins Gilman follows Vivian Lane, a quiet New England daughter who longs for work, learning and a life of her own.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Quiet Girl Hears a Scandal Next Door
The story opens in Bainville, a small New England town where everyone talks about everyone else. Three gossiping sisters, the Misses Foote, call at Samuel Lane's house with news that Morton Elder, the orphan nephew of the schoolteacher Orella Elder, has been sent away from college.
Vivian Lane, the daughter of the house, listens from the back room and burns with sympathy. Her father, Samuel Lane, tells her flatly that she will not go to college and that marriage is a woman's duty. Vivian says she would rather be a doctor in a children's hospital, and he waves the idea away.
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What is The Crux by Charlotte Perkins Gilman about?
It follows Vivian Lane, a young New England woman who moves West with her grandmother and friends, finds work she loves, and must make a hard choice about marriage after she learns a painful truth.
Who is Mrs. Pettigrew in The Crux?
She is Vivian's grandmother, a thin-lipped, sharp-eyed woman of sixty. She knits bright sweaters, answers many things with a short huh, travels West on her own plan, and quietly guides the young people.
What does the title The Crux mean?
A crux is a deciding point. In the novel it is the moment when Vivian must weigh feeling against knowledge and decide what she owes herself and her future children.
The author
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
1860–1935 · American feminist writer
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) was an American writer and lecturer. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and lived in California, New York, and Connecticut. She wrote fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, including Women and Economics (1898), The Crux (1911), and Herland (1915). She died in Pasadena, California.
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