author
Sarah Grand
1854–1943
A bold Victorian novelist and feminist campaigner, she helped define the idea of the “New Woman” and used fiction to challenge the sexual double standard of her time. Her best-known work, The Heavenly Twins, made her one of the most talked-about writers of the 1890s.
3 Audiobooks
The Beth Book Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius
by Sarah Grand
The Heavenly Twins
by Sarah Grand
Ideala
by Sarah Grand
About the author
Born Frances Elizabeth Bellenden Clarke in Donaghadee, Ireland, Sarah Grand later became one of the most prominent voices in late Victorian debates about women’s lives. Writing under a pen name, she built a reputation not only as a novelist but also as a public speaker and activist interested in women’s rights and social reform.
Her fiction is closely linked with the emerging “New Woman” movement, and she is widely associated with popularizing that phrase in the 1890s. Grand’s novels often tackled difficult subjects directly, especially marriage, morality, and the unequal expectations placed on men and women.
Today she is best remembered for The Heavenly Twins and for the way her work brought feminist questions into mainstream literary culture. Her writing combined popular storytelling with a strong reforming spirit, which helped make her an influential figure in English-language literature of the period.