The Actor's Book of Monologues for Women
A diverse collection of monologues featuring the voices of women through the ages \ Drawn from poetry, fiction, diaries, journals, and documents of public record, these selections, although not originally intended for theatrical or cinematic performances, offer unique dramatic opportunities for actors, speakers, students, or anyone interested in women’s studies.\ Stefan Rudnicki has brought together selections from...
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General Introduction\ PART I: WITNESS\ 1. Mirrors to Nature\ Introduction Linda Hogan—From Walking\ Aphra Behn—From Oroonoko\ Mary Botham Howitt—The Sea Fowler\ Frances Moore Brooke—To the Chase, to the Chase!\ Emily Pfeiffer—To a Moth that Drinketh of the Ripe October\ Jane Welsh Carlyle—To a Swallow Building Under Our Eaves\ Emily Dickinson—Dear March—Come in\ Clarissa Scott Delany—Solace\ Sarah Orne Jewett—From A White Heron\ Soge Track—From The Clearing in the Valley\ 2. Commentaries and Character Studies\ Introduction Anne Finch—The Atheist and the Acorn\ Mrs. Leicester—The Mock Hero\ Elizabeth Trefusis—The Boy and Butterfly\ Carolyn Wells—To a Milkmaid\ Phoebe Cary—When Lovely Women\ Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon—The Woman Who Used Her Theory\ Jane Austen—From Sanditon\ Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan\ Tabith Gilman Tenney—From Female Quixotism\ Mark Twain—From Eve's Diary\ Fanny Fern (Sara Willis Parton)—Aunt Hetty on Matrimony\ Frances Miriam Berry Whitcher—Hezekiah Bedott\ Kate F. Ellis—A Sunday Morning Interview\ On the Servant Girl Question\ The Last Breakfast at the Mountains\ Emily Post—Fad Followers\ Gloves\ Smoking Don'ts\ Eve Merriam—Tryst\ Maura Stanton—From Nijinsky\ Rhoda Lerman—From The Girl that He Marries\ From God's Ear\ Alice Kahn—The Brie Generation\ 3. Journeys in History\ Introduction Fanny Burney—Pursued by the King\ Lady Augusta Stanley—The Duke of Wellington's Funeral\ Queen Victoria in Mourning\ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu—Overlooking Constantinople\ Ellen Terry—America\ Elizabeth Barrett Browning—Italy\ Susan Hale—To Miss Mary B. Dinsmoor\ Sylvia Ashton-Warner—From I Passed This Way\ Isadora Duncan—D'Annunzio\ Fanny Kemble—From The Journal of Frances Anne Butler\ Kate Ryan—From Old Boston Museum Days\ Billie Burke—From With a Feather on My Nose\ Umm Kulthum—From The Umm Kulthum Nobody Knows\ 4. Witnesses to War\ Introduction Margaret Hill Morris—From her Diary\ Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker—A Day of Great Confusion\ The Blazing Fleet\ Deborah Sampson Gannett—An Address Delivered at the Federal-Street Theatre, Boston\ Margaret E. Breckenridge—From The Princeton Standard, 1862\ Eliza Frances Andrews—From The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-65\ Emma Adair—Fred Brown's Body\ Mrs. John Harris—From Letters\ Mrs. A. H. Hoge—From Ladies' Address at the Packer Institute, Brooklyn, Spring, 1865\ Mrs. Belle Reynolds—From her Diary\ May Sinclair—Field Ambulance in Retreat (Via Dolorosa, Via Sacra)\ Anaïs Nin—The Grounded Aviator\ Diana Barnato Walker—Holding the Line, Britain, 1939-1945\ Ida Dobrzanska Kasprzak—Uprising, Poland, 1939-1945\ Dellie Hahne—Forty Years Later\ Lynn Bower—Twilight Zone, Vietnam, 1965-72\ Nellie Bianchi—The Kidnappings\ Daisy Zamora—Trapped in the Cross-Fire\ PART II: ACTOR\ 5. Polemics\ Introduction Queen Hatshepsut—Monument to Amun\ Joan of Arc—Statements Queen Anne Boleyn—Defiled Is My Name Full Sore\ Anne Askewe—Like as the Armed Knight\ Queen Elizabeth I—Oh Fortune!\ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu—Thoughts on Education\ Elizabeth Barrett Browning—An Englishwoman's Education\ Miss Wentworth—From Life's Lessons\ Mary Wollstonecraft—From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman\ Maria W. Stewart—From What If I Am a Woman?\ Susan B. Anthony—On Woman's Right to Suffrage\ Merle Woo—Whenever You're Cornered, the Only Way Out Is to Fight\ 6. Choices\ Introduction Loi Yau—An Agreement to Assist a Young Girl\ Jane Johnson—Affidavit and Testimony\ Marjory Fleming—From Daily Diary, 1810\ Susan Hale—School-Days\ Kate Ryan—The Little Red Shoes\ Helen Ward Brandreth—"I have determined to keep a journal..."\ Mrs. Mary Robinson—A Propensity to Intoxication\ Jane Welsh Carlyle—Letter to John Sterling\ S.N. Hoisington—Wolves at the Door\ Annette Lecleve Botkin—An Undependable Sort of Bird\ Lavina Gates Chapman—Blow the Building Down\ Martha Martin—The Sea Otter\ Donna Redmond—I'm Proud to Be a Hillbilly\ Roberta Victor—Hooker\ Carolyn Nearmyer—Family Farmer\ Jean Gump—Swords into Plowshares\ Dr. Jane Hodgson—On Probation\ Zahrah Muhammad—From My Life, An Extended Interview by Susan S. Davis\ Carmen Prado—If We Stay Together They Can't Hurt Us\ 7. Friends, Lovers and Wives\ Introduction Gareth Owen—Friends\ Sei Shonagon—On Parting\ Heloise—To Abelard\ Aphra Behn—In Imitation of Horace\ Elizabeth Tollet—Winter Song\ Mirra Lokhvitskaya—Tsarina of the Underworld\ Adelaide Anne Procter—A Woman's Question\ Ellen Mary Patrick Downing—Were I but His Own Wife\ Anonymous—Grief of a Girl's Heart\ Anne Bradstreet—A Letter to Her Husband\ Lynne Yamaguchi Fletcher—After Delivering Your Lunch\ Rhoda Lerman—From Eleanor\ Mary Shelley—My Beloved Shelley\ Lady Catherine Dyer—Epitaph on the Monument of Sir William Dyer at Colmworth, 1641\ Christina Rossetti—The First Day\ 8. Daughters, Sisters and Mothers\ Introduction Emily Dickinson—Father Does Not Live with Us Now The Last Afternoon That My Father Lived\ Anonymous—Oral Testimony of a Former Slave\ Lucille Clifton—From Generations: A Memoir\ Anna Lee Walters—From The Warriors\ Marian Yee—Wintermelons\ Karen Dale Wolman—From Telling Mom\ Kate Douglas Wiggins and Nora Archibald Smith, Editors—From Pinafore Palace I had a little pony Six little mice sat down to spin Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea I'll tell you a story Solomon Grundy Three children sliding on the ice The man in the wilderness asked me If all the world were apple-pie I had a little nut tree If you sneeze on Monday When the wind is in the east Girls and boys, come out to play Hundreds of stars in the pretty sky\ Christina Rossetti—Who Has Seen the Wind?\ Abbie Farwell Brown—Learning to Play\ Eliza Lee Follen—The New Moon\ Dinah Maria Mulock Craik—Philip, My King\ Mirra Lokhvitskaya—My Sky\ Jane Cannary Hickok—From Calamity Jane's Letters to Her Daughter\ PART III: DREAMER\ 9. Intimate Visions\ Queen Elizabeth I—I Grieve and Dare Not Show My Discontent\ Orinda (Katherine Fowler Philips)—Ode Against Pleasure\ Christina Rossetti—Passing and Glassing Echo\ Emily Brontë—Remembrance\ From Wuthering Heights\ Anna Kingsford—The Child on the Cliff The Laboratory Underground\ Emily Dickinson—Going to Heaven!\ There's Been a Death I Cannot Live with You\ Nathaniel Hawthorne—From The Scarlet Letter\ Charlotte Perkins Gilman—From The Yellow Wallpaper\ Margaret Atwood—A Night in the Royal Ontario Museum\ Gareth Owen—The Park\ Sappho—No\ Pierre Louys—From Chansons de Bilitis iii. Maternal Advice vii. The Passer-by xxix. The Pan-pipe xci. Funeral Song xcii. Hymn to Astarte xciii. Hymn to the Night The Tomb of Bilitis: First Epitaph\ 10. Epics and Gothics\ Introduction Sappho—The Homecoming of Hector and Andromache\ Marie de France—From The Lay of Sir Launfal\ Lady Charlotte Elliot—The Wife of Loki\ Mrs. Darmesteter (A. Mary F. Robinson)—A Ballad of Orleans, 1429\ Esperanza (Lady Wilde)—A Wicked Spell A Woman's Curse\ Mary C. G. Byron—The Fairy Thrall The Tryst of the Night\ Christina Rossetti—From Goblin Market\ Nazik al-Mala'ikah—From The Viper\ Ann Radcliffe—From The Romance of the Forest\ From The Mysteries of Udolpho\ Elizabeth Gaskell—From The Old Nurse's Story\ Lanoe Falconer—Cecilia's Gospel\ Mary E. Braddon—From The Cold Embrace\ Charlotte Brontë—From Jane Eyre\ Bram Stoker—Mina Murray's Journal\ Robert W. Chambers—Mary Read\ Fredric Brown—Too Far\ 11. Revelations and Transformations\ Introduction Philo-Philippa—From To the Excellent Orinda\ Anne Killigrew—On a Picture Painted by Her Self...\ Phillis Wheatley—On Imagination\ Alice Meynell—The Modern Poet: A Song of Derivations\ Mary Shelley—From the 1831 introduction to Frankenstein\ Elizabeth Melville—From Ane Godlie Dreame\ Rebecca Cox Jackson—From Gifts of Power\ Lidiya Zinovyeva-Annibal—From The Wolves\ Anaïs Nin—From Diary, Volume 2\ Dahlia Ravikovitch—Tirzah and the Wide World\ Furugh Farrukhzad—Divine Rebellion\ Patricia Geary—From Strange Toys\ Haniel Long—From Malinche\ Marion Zimmer Bradley—From The Mists of Avalon\ Ursula K. LeGuin—From Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea\ Zenna Henderson—From Pilgrimage\ Rhoda Lerman—Dawn Is Far Away The Vestments He Wove A Spool of Golden Thread\ Ruth Whitman—July 4, 1846, at Fort Laramie September 6, 1846, in the Desert March 15, 1847, by Alder Creek Where Is the West\ Emily Dickinson—Go Thy Great Way!\ Select Bibliography
