Pink And White Tyranny

Pink and White Tyranny Harriet Beecher Stowe

"Simply one of the most charming little books that have fallen into our hands for many a day. There is just enough of sadness in it to make it true to life, while it is so full of honest work and whole-souled fun, paints so lively a picture of a home in which contentment, energy, high spirits, and real goodness make up for the lack of money, that it will do good wherever it finds its way. Few will read it without lasting profit."—Hartford Courant. "Little Women. By Louisa M. Alcott. We regard these volumes as two of the most fascinating that ever came into a household. Old and young read them with the same eagerness. Lifelike in all their delineations of time, place, and character, they are not only intensely interesting, but full of a cheerful morality, that makes them healthy reading for both fireside and the Sunday school. We think we love "Jo" a little better than all the rest, her genius is so happy tempered with affection."—The Guiding Star. The following verbatim copy of a letter from a "little woman" is a specimen of many which enthusiasm for her book has dictated to the author of "Little Women:"—

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 – 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. She is best known for her novel “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” which depicts the harsh conditions for enslaved African Americans. “Pink and White Tyranny” is a comedy of manners on the institution of marriage in the nineteenth century. The main character, Lillie Ellis, has been spoiled, petted, and flattered since the day she was born. When she tricks the adoring and upright John Seymour into marriage, it is unclear who is the victim and who is the victimizer.

Originally published in 1871, Pink and White Tyranny is, seemingly, a light, comic story about a frivolous young girl who marries for money. However, as with most of Beecher Stowe's writings, things are not what they appear on the surface. This ""society novel,"" instead, is a critique of the nineteenth-century's dominant view that women should use their femininity to gain power.