ABSTRACT
New Woman novelists, such as Sarah Grand in The Beth Book (1897) and Gertrude Dix in The Image-Breakers (1900), grappled with the same dichotomy. The protagonist of Sarah Grand's The Beth Book sells her artistic embroidery to free herself from a husband's economic tyranny. At the same time, she turns the old-fashioned skill of sewing not only to the practical task of unpicking and remaking beautiful clothing, but also of unpicking and remaking her own identity. New Woman authors such as Grand, a suffragist, and Dix, a socialist, often associated beautiful clothing with sweatshops, exploitation of the poor, mass consumerism, and capitalism not to mention middle- and upper-class women's relegation to the world of ornament and beauty rather than political power or social equity. And yet, in their depictions of sewing and of fine clothing, these novels also assert the revolutionary potential of dress culture.
