Proud Man

A first US edition of another reprinted novel (this originally published in 1934) by Burdekin (1896-1963), who also wrote as "Murray Constantine" (Swastika Night, 1985; The End of This Day's business, 1989). In her most impressive re-outings so far, a highly evolved, vegetarian, androgynous, self-fertile, dispassionate, rational, telepathic Person from the far future visits 1930's England in a dream. More than dialectic, less than polemic, Burdekin's "novel" offers observations from this detached, implicitly feminist perspective. In the first section, the Person describes and analyses human and British history for his/her contemporaries (though whence the Person derives his/her information isn't clear). Next, the Person meets and talks with an old priest, Andrew Gifford, who calls the Person "Verona" and teaches him/her English. Then the Person converses with Leonora Simons, a novelist who's trapped and frustrated by sexual politics and gender identity, and whose child had died. Finally, the Person encounters Gilbert Hassall, a child-murderer who regards the Person, now calling him/herself Gifford Verona, as male. Vastly more readable than other Burdekin reissues, with frequently devastating - and remarkably skillful - feminist analyses. (Be prepared, however, to grit your teeth when the author comes unstuck; her discussion of homosexuality, for instance, is utterly misguided.) (Kirkus Reviews)