Mar 31, 2011

Besant Calling for Reforms

In phase two of this project, my partner and I found a website that contained the titles and information of all the Little Blue Books. The Little Blues Books are hundreds of books published by the Haldeman-Julius Publishing Company. Emanuel Haldeman-Julius had the idea to get literature and information on almost any subject out to the people at prices they could afford. The Little Blue Books were the result of that idea. On the website (http://www.haldeman-julius.org), a list of titles can be found. The titles include well-known works such as #32 Poe’s Poems and Shakespeare’s “Much Ado about Nothing” as well as lesser known works including many books on self-help, how-to, and self-education.


This idea of allowing the common people to purchase literature was also brought up by Annie Besant in her pamphlet, Is the Bible Indictable?. Besant, in her writing, speaks of the unfairness that certain works were treated with in her time. She sights and proves that the cheaper a work is, the less respected it is by the higher classes. Many people however disagree and say that the obscenities in these books are what makes them disrespectful. Throughout this writing, Besant proceeds to point out occurrences in The Bible that could be seen as obscene.


While searching through the Little Blue Book Titles one was found that was written by Annie Besant. #83 Marriage: Its Past, Present and Future. While it is not held at the Lilly Library, it can be read online under the title Marriage: AS IT WAS, AS IT IS, AND AS IT SHOULD BE. The work is a ‘Plea for Reform” very similar to English Republicanism, also written by Besant. Besant uses similar writing techniques between the two writings. In both she includes numerous references to famous and respected people, even quoting some. In English Republicanism she mentions Milton and Sydney. She uses a humorous quote by Paine to help sight the problems with monarchal government. In Marriage: Its Past, Present and Future Besant relied on the words of Jean Jacques Rousseau and examines the work of Blackstone. By bringing in well-known names and ideas and using them well, she sort of proves herself and what she is saying. The people she mentions are respected and by agreeing with them and even opposing their views, she makes reader respect her.


Within both of these writings Besant begins with facts about the current situation and then goes into what is wrong with it (Monarchy is not good and Marriage Laws are unfair to women). She then goes on to clearly explain the steps needed to fix each situation. This is where her plea comes in. In English Republicanism she wants England to move away from a Monarchy and toward a Republic government. In Marriage: Its Past, Present and Future she strives to get the marriage laws as well as the divorce laws fair for not only women, but also couples against society. By putting these calls for reform at the end of her argument, after clearly stating the current problems, then setting a course of action to of how to make it happen, she makes her readers feel as if they are personally involved in her strategy. She makes it difficult to disagree with her in both cases.


For my final paper a definitely want to stay with this most recent find by Besant (Marriage). Throughout this course the treatment of wives by their husbands and by society has been focussed on many times. Authors such as Gilman and Fern especially interested me on this topic, so I want to try to incorporate their views as well.

3 comments:

Britt said...

Courtney,

I think this a really interesting find and topic. I'm glad that you went through the process of explaining what you are working with. I really feel like I understand your topic without having read it. Besant's arguments about divorce could be something to look into because divorce is still so prevalent today. I think that could be a nice way to focus your final paper. I'm sure that there are a lot of female writers who covered divorce in their writings. Be careful not to just cover marriage, that is pretty broad. There are many different ways you can cover this topic. Good luck with your final paper.

Meaghan Ternik said...

Courtney,

I also think this sounds like a good, relevant topic. Some questions I have about this are: when did Halderman-Julius come about and begin mass producing these books for a reater audience? Also, how did they go about choosng which books to print? Did they opt for safe, popular texts, or were they intersted in putting more risque materials n the hands ofthe pulic for the sake of their concepts? How was Marriage recieved by the public and was it challenging to authority to read/buy such books? I think if you can get a good feel for the impact this and other of Besant's texts had on society you'll have the makings for a really interesting and enlightening paper. And you're right that we have looked extensively at mateials in class that relate to domestic and societal gender-marked relationships so you'll have ample outside referencsat your disposal. Good luck!

Tessa said...

I will most certainly have to read the little blue book by Besant! She certainly seems very concerned that everyone has access to knowledge, not just the economically privileged. It makes me wonder why this was such an important cause for her. We both already know from 'Is the Bible Indictable?' that the government wished to limit the poor's access to knowledge to a certain extent. Why was this? Did they really wish to control the amount of knowledge the common people had? Or was it only in regards to certain types of knowledge? Her note at the end of the aforementioned pamphlet also makes me wonder if only certain outlets of knowledge were targeted. Besant mentions that the ruling of obscenity in her case seemed to be an attack on Freethought Publishers. This has certainly has brought up some interesting questions for me; thanks for helping to inspire them!

Post a Comment