Ryder

This modernist, experimental, and controversial novel examines gender politics in the lives of an American family.

Lesbian poet, journalist, and illustrator Djuna Barnes’s debut novel was a sensation when it was originally published in 1928. A bawdy parody of patriarchal repression, the book was heavily censored upon its release in America. An exploration of sexuality that is thought to be based on Barnes’s own life, the novel depicts a family headed by polygamist Wendell Ryder through the eyes of his daughter, Julia. Employing a variety of literary styles, from parable, poetry, sentimental fiction, and drama, Barnes satirizes masculinity and femininity in one of modern literature’s first and best examinations of gender and power dynamics.