The End of This Day's Business

Burdekin's (1896-1963) companion, a woman who requests anonymity, has stated that the English feminist ``never . . . took longer than six weeks in writing any book.'' So it is not surprising that this previously unpublished 1935 novel almost wholly neglects literary craft in favor of the author's political agenda. It is the 63rd century and women have long established their ascendancy, having sickened of the world wars that men wage. Males are raised in careful ignorance of the past; literature exists only in Latin, a language of which men are not even aware. Burdekin ( Swastika Night ) does not paint a paradise, however: men here hate their bodies, suffer profound insecurity, cannot fulfill themselves. Grania, a distinguished philosopher, perceives the harm of sexism and risks her life to educate her son. As Pygmalion, her dogged lessons concentrate heavily on the flawed political and social structures of our times, here called the Childhood Age, and on the particular horrors of fascism and Hitler. (Dec.)