The Two of Them (novel)

The Two of Them

First edition
Author	Joanna Russ
Cover artist	Norm Walker
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	Berkley Books
Publication date	May 1978
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	226
ISBN	0-399-12149-8 (hardcover)
OCLC	3516946
Dewey Decimal	813/.5/4
LC Class	PZ4.R9548 Tw PS3568.U763

The Two of Them is a feminist science fiction novel by Joanna Russ. It was first published in 1978 in the United States by Berkley Books and in Great Britain by The Women's Press in 1986. It was last reissued in 2005 by the Wesleyan University Press with a foreword by Sarah LeFanu.

Plot

Irene, a female galactic agent, rescues a young woman, Zubeydeh, from a male-dominant culture of a colonized planet, Ala-ed-deen, where women are kept in purdah.

...shivers generically between telling the realistic story of oppression -and escape- of a young woman brought up on a planet whose religion is reminiscent of Islam, and deconstructing this generic material into the embittered dreams of a woman trapped on Earth

—  John Clute, "The Two of Them", from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ^[1]

Background

This novel uses characters and a setting from Suzette Haden Elgin's short story For the Sake of Grace with Elgin's permission. Russ discloses this in the novel's dedication page.

References

Notes

1. Clute and Nicholls 1995, p. 1035.

Bibliography

• Clute, John and Peter Nicholls. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1993 (2nd edition 1995). ISBN   0-312-13486-X.
• Cortiel, Jeanne. "Demand My Writing: Joanna Russ/Feminism/Science Fiction" in Science Fiction Texts and Studies. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 1999. pp. 64–70, 104-121. ISBN   0-85323-614-3.
• Spencer, Kathleen L. "Rescuing the Female Child: The Fiction of Joanna Russ" Science Fiction Studies 17.2 (1990): pp. 167–187.

External links

• Gwyneth Jones. "Joanna Russ Deconstructs Space Opera: Review of the 2005 edition of "The Two of Them"" . Retrieved March 20, 2011.
• The Two of Them title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database