author
Mona Caird
1854–1932
A sharp, provocative voice in late Victorian literature, she became famous for challenging conventional ideas about marriage, motherhood, and women’s freedom. Her novels and essays helped define the spirit of the “New Woman” and still feel strikingly modern.
3 Audiobooks
About the author
Born Alice Mona Alison on May 24, 1854, Mona Caird was an English novelist, essayist, and social reformer whose work stirred debate in the late 19th century. She is especially remembered for her feminist writing, which questioned the assumptions behind marriage and women’s roles at a time when those subjects were rarely discussed so openly.
Caird wrote fiction and nonfiction on a wide range of issues, including marriage, motherhood, civil liberties, and animal rights. Her work made her one of the notable literary voices associated with the New Woman movement, and her essays were controversial enough to bring her national attention during her lifetime.
She died on February 4, 1932. Although she was neglected for a time after her death, later readers and scholars returned to her work and recognized her as an important early feminist thinker and an original, fearless writer.