Fidelity

An Annotated Edition

Recovering a lost feminist story of scandal and strength for a new generation

Out of print in the United States since its original publication in 1915, Susan Glaspell's largely forgotten novel Fidelity tells the story of Ruth Holland, a young woman who returns to her small Midwestern hometown after eleven years' absence. Forced home by the death of her father, Ruth must face a family and community that have largely turned against her following her affair with a married man.

Glaspell, mostly known as a playwright and for her founding of the Provincetown Players, was also an accomplished novelist. Inspired by events in Glaspell's own life, Fidelity portrays Ruth's struggle to find fulfillment, love, and purpose in a society that imposes rigid expectations and limitations on how a woman should live. Ruth is a woman torn between love and commitment to her family—and between love and commitment to herself. Glaspell's narrative shifts between characters, offering glimpses through the community's eyes of the ways that Ruth's return forces residents to confront their beliefs and the impact that they have. In the vein of Chopin's The Awakening and Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Glaspell's Fidelity holds an important place in the history of early twentieth-century feminist literature and is long overdue to be back in print.

Students at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, under the guidance of Kevin McMullen, project manager of the Walt Whitman Archive, have resurrected this neglected novel. The text includes contemporary photographs of Susan Glaspell, a new introduction, and annotations throughout, which provide useful commentary for students and general readers alike.

Contributor: Kevin McMullen (Edited by), Sophie Anderson (Edited by), Kayla Barnes (Edited by), Ian Byington (Edited by), Sam Cobb (Edited by), Sarah Danielson (Edited by), Hanna Dannar (Edited by), Drew Fridrich (Edited by), Edison Geiler (Edited by), Rylee Gregg (Edited by), Marissa Hanley (Edited by), Bella Hardy (Edited by), Michael Hodge (Edited by), Ben Jezewski (Edited by), Jackson Kissler (Edited by), Wallace Langdon (Edited by), Madalyn Meyer (Edited by), Zoë Olson (Edited by), Angelina Pattavina (Edited by), Gabriel Reiman (Edited by), Grace Reiman (Edited by), Halle Ross (Edited by), Audrey Salber (Edited by), Fatima Salman (Edited by), McKenna Sender (Edited by), Presley Shonka (Edited by), Paige Trutna (Edited by), Tyler Wagner (Edited by)

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