286 Reconstructing, Reimagining: 1865–1900reflects, “considered ‘play-actin’ as the sum of all iniquity”; and, in becoming an
actor, “a delicious sense of freedom pervaded her soul, and the old defiant spirit
seemed to rise up within her.” Christie has “no talent except that which may develop
in any girl possessing the lively fancy, sympathetic nature, and ambitious spirit
which make such girls naturally dramatic.” But she soon rises in the theatrical ranks.
As she does so, however, she becomes aware that she is growing, as a result of her
success, “selfish, frivolous, and vain.” She has “reached the height of earthly bliss,” she
reflects; she may become “a fine actress perhaps, but how good a woman?” Play
acting has served its purpose, in further liberating and developing her; and she quits
it, after an appropriately melodramatic episode in which she forgets herself and risks
injury to save a fellow actress from an accident onstage. She has shown her mettle
as a true woman, caring selflessly for another woman, and it is time to move on. By
the close of the story, Christie has a daughter, and is joined with her and other
females in what is termed a “loving league of sisters.” Devoted now to the cause of
women, she is roughly the same age as her creator was when she published this
novel; and it is hard not to see her sense of her own empowerment as something
shared with Alcott. Wo r k is a celebration of female liberation and labor of many
kinds, including the liberation experienced in and from the labor of writing.
Harriet Spofford (1835–1921) also wrote to support herself and her family. Her
reputation was established when the Atlantic Monthly published her short story “In
a Cellar” in 1859. She went on to write poetry, articles, and several novels. The longer
fiction includes Sir Rohan’s Ghost (1860), a Gothic story of a man who tries to kill his
mistress and is later plagued by her daughter, and Azarian: An Episode (1864), a
more poetic tale concerning an artistic Bostonian called Constant Azarian who is
too self-absorbed to appreciate the devotion of the idealistic Ruth Yetton. Born in
New England, and moving to Washington, DC after marriage, she also wrote of her
New England friendships in A Little Book of Friendships (1916) and the local color of
the capital city in Old Washington (1906). Notable among her nonfictional work is
her book Art Decoration Applied to Furniture (1878), where she develops her belief
that style in dress and furnishings reflect the people who adopt them. That belief
informs what is undoubtedly her best work, her short stories, collected in such
volumes as The Amber-Gods and Other Stories (1863), New-England Legends (1871),
and The Elder’s People (1920). In the title tale of her first, 1863 collection, for instance,
the two major, female characters are defined by the jewelry they wear. The passionate
Yon wears “pagan” amber ornaments, while the placid and patient Lu wears “light”
and “limpid” aqua-marina. What also informs the best of these stories is a firm
commitment to female power and community. In “A Village Dressmaker,” for
example, the dressmaker Susanna gives the wedding gown she made for herself to
Rowena Mayhew, who is marrying the man they have both loved. And she is happy
to do so because, as her two maiden aunts recognize, she has acknowledged necessity
and, at the same time, she has helped another woman. That tale is from Spofford’s
final, 1920 collection, which is a detailed, realistic account of New England life.
Some of the earlier stories are more strangely, hauntingly romantic but they still
explore the terms in which women can express and assert themselves – throughGGray_c03.indd 286ray_c 03 .indd 286 8 8/1/2011 7:54:23 AM/ 1 / 2011 7 : 54 : 23 AM