ABSTRACT
The Heavenly Twins (1892) best expresses Grand's demand for female autonomy and her faith in women's refusal to countenance men's immorality. The portraits of the independent Evadne and Angelica contrast with the character of Edith, who contracts syphilis from her husband and dies mad. Evadne's refusal to consummate her marriage because of her husband's premarital affairs demonstrates Grand's contention that women must set moral standards, while Angelica's adventurous spirit epitomizes the New Woman's frustration at her limited opportunities, for she is far more clever than her twin brother Diavolo, who nevertheless has far greater freedom and access to education. These ideas and many of the characters recur in Ideala (1888) and the semiautobiographical The Beth Book (1897), both of which trace the development of women writers. In the latter, which follows the protagonist from infancy to adulthood, Grand emphasizes the points at which wider experience, better education, or more sympathetic response would have eased Beth's situation.
