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A review by meganj0107
The Woman of the Wolf and Other Stories by Renée Vivien
4.0
Renée Vivien combines dark humour, frank observations and beautiful prose to create a short story collection that satirises and examines gender roles, retells myth and biblical tales, and provides a platform for strong women to flourish.
I enjoyed the entire collection, but several of the short stories really stood out for me. I loved Vivien’s satirical portrayal of men’s egotism in The Woman of the Wolf. Written from the perspective of the male narrator, this story describes his experience attempting to ‘court’ the woman of the wolf. Despite appearing unsuccessful, he continually believes her disinterest to be a sign of her love and a reason to persist. When she eventually condemns his behaviour, he is enraged, and yet still believes the woman is attempting to make him fall further in love with her. This misguided way of thinking – which is reminiscent of the way catcalling is often portrayed as a ‘compliment’ or a clear ‘no’ is taken as a sign of playing ‘hard to get’ – is cleverly explored by Renée Vivien and it was definitely one of my favourite stories. This theme is repeated in several of the stories, which unfortunate consequences for the women involved as Vivien portrays the brutality of ego-driven men.
Other favourites included Prince Charming – one of the shortest stories, and easily the cutest – The Veil of Vashti – drawn from the Bible story of Lilith and incredibly empowering – and The Splendid Prostitute – involving a badass woman refusing to be dictated to by men.
It is a text I would’ve enjoyed examining for A level English Literature; I think there is a lot to be explored, examined and unpacked. It does reflect the anti-semitism and racism views of the period in which it was written (1904) and this could also be examined under the lens of intersectional feminism. The satirical writing style and frank observations reminded me of Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry, which I did study at A level, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of feminist literature.
I enjoyed the entire collection, but several of the short stories really stood out for me. I loved Vivien’s satirical portrayal of men’s egotism in The Woman of the Wolf. Written from the perspective of the male narrator, this story describes his experience attempting to ‘court’ the woman of the wolf. Despite appearing unsuccessful, he continually believes her disinterest to be a sign of her love and a reason to persist. When she eventually condemns his behaviour, he is enraged, and yet still believes the woman is attempting to make him fall further in love with her. This misguided way of thinking – which is reminiscent of the way catcalling is often portrayed as a ‘compliment’ or a clear ‘no’ is taken as a sign of playing ‘hard to get’ – is cleverly explored by Renée Vivien and it was definitely one of my favourite stories. This theme is repeated in several of the stories, which unfortunate consequences for the women involved as Vivien portrays the brutality of ego-driven men.
Other favourites included Prince Charming – one of the shortest stories, and easily the cutest – The Veil of Vashti – drawn from the Bible story of Lilith and incredibly empowering – and The Splendid Prostitute – involving a badass woman refusing to be dictated to by men.
It is a text I would’ve enjoyed examining for A level English Literature; I think there is a lot to be explored, examined and unpacked. It does reflect the anti-semitism and racism views of the period in which it was written (1904) and this could also be examined under the lens of intersectional feminism. The satirical writing style and frank observations reminded me of Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry, which I did study at A level, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of feminist literature.