SEX IN SIN
First edition of this rare feminist novel by an abolitionist and temperance crusader.
Very good plus.
Price: $1,200.00
SEX IN SIN
"'Whiskey could make a brute of an angel, could it be induced to drink it,' replied Dorcas."
Zelota Garner, Ohio superintendent of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, brought to her battle with the Rum Power all the zeal with which in earlier decades she abhorred human slavery (per her preface). An unabashed work of "message" fiction, SEX IN SIN does more than attack the fermented fruits of drunkenness and rail against the physical and moral degradation wrought by the Demon Rum — though it does do that. As the title promises, the novel also spotlights the cruel double standards that forgave men's drinking when not outright condoning it, allowing them to repent of their sins and return to positions of respect, while a woman's ruin and outcast status, facilitated by drink, persisted unto lasting disgrace or death. Garner's melodrama leavens its tragedy with optimism and a sure faith in social progress: "Woman is coming out purified by the ages of unjust ostracism to which she has been subjected," she writes, "and then the great law of compensation will balance accounts in her favor." OCLC records just three holdings of SEX IN SIN, which appears to be Garner's only novel.
The Object
Battle Creek, MI: Gage, De Vos & Company, 1884. 7.25'' x 5''. Original blue cloth stamped in black and gilt. All edges tinted red. Decorative floral endpapers. 385, [1] pages. Moderate edgewear and bumping; spine lightly sunned. Pages toned.
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