The Daughters of Danaus

This reissue of an 1894 novel by prolific English author Caird (1854-1932) is noteworthy for its unequivocal rejection of Victorian ideals of femininity. Highly principled Hadria is implausibly persuaded to marry an inoffensive admirer whom she neither loves nor respects. After bearing two sons and adopting a baby girl, she wonders ``why it was that marriage did not make all women wicked--openly and actively so,'' and, taking only her daughter, goes to Paris to study music. Circumstances force Hadria to return to her native Scotland, where she resumes married life but vows to continue her revolt against ``man-made precepts.'' A number of melodramatic devices further exaggerate the plot. The status of women is virtually the sole concern, aired here in doggedly epigrammatic dialogue: ``One has to pay for experience . . . . One has to pay more heavily for in experience.'' To dismiss Caird's novel as bombastic, however, overlooks its originality, evinced, in part, by its recognition of female complicity in perpetuating sexism and by its relative restraint in comparison with con temporaneous popular works. (Aug.)