The Word Woman and Other Related Writings

Did Robert Graves ``steal'' the material for The White Goddess from Laura Riding's ( Selected Poems: In Five Sets ) unpublished writings, as Riding claimed? Now that this lost, uncompleted 1930s manuscript has surfaced, readers can judge for themselves. In ``The Word Woman '' Riding hypothesizes that there are two things man does not know: God and woman. Supporting her theory with quotes from literature and religion, she shows that while man divines God, when it comes to woman he attempts ``to identify the different with himself.'' Having, in the editors' words, ``achieved an extraordinary degree of success in a man's world,'' Riding (1901-1991) hoped to distance herself from autobiographical references, yet unexpected juxtapositions of material make this a very subjective study. Fleshing out this volume are two stories from the 1930s that, after didactic openings, show her ideas in action. As for essays dating from the 1960s and 1970s, her single theme--the place of women in the universe--becomes tiresome by the late 1970s; Riding is best when she tackles contemporary issues head-on, as when she makes a strong case for calling modern feminism ``a movement of folly.'' (May)