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    Terrible Virtue: A Novel
    Terrible Virtue: A Novel
    Terrible Virtue: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Terrible Virtue: A Novel

    Written by Ellen Feldman

    Narrated by Kate Udall

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In the spirit of The Paris Wife and Loving Frank, the provocative and compelling story of one of the most fascinating and influential figures of the twentieth century: Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood—an indomitable woman who, more than any other, and at great personal cost, shaped the sexual landscape we inhabit today.

    The daughter of a hard-drinking, smooth-tongued free thinker and a mother worn down by thirteen children, Margaret Sanger vowed her life would be different. Trained as a nurse, she fought for social justice beside labor organizers, anarchists, socialists, and other progressives, eventually channeling her energy to one singular cause: legalizing contraception. It was a battle that would pit her against puritanical, patriarchal lawmakers, send her to prison again and again, force her to flee to England, and ultimately change the lives of women across the country and around the world.

    This complex enigmatic revolutionary was at once vain and charismatic, generous and ruthless, sexually impulsive and coolly calculating—a competitive, self-centered woman who championed all women, a conflicted mother who suffered the worst tragedy a parent can experience. From opening the first illegal birth control clinic in America in 1916 through the founding of Planned Parenthood to the arrival of the Pill in the 1960s, Margaret Sanger sacrificed two husbands, three children, and scores of lovers in her fight for sexual equality and freedom.

    With cameos by such legendary figures as Emma Goldman, John Reed, Big Bill Haywood, H. G. Wells, and the love of Margaret’s life, Havelock Ellis, this richly imagined portrait of a larger-than-life woman is at once sympathetic to her suffering and unsparing of her faults. Deeply insightful, Terrible Virtue is Margaret Sanger’s story as she herself might have told it.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMar 22, 2016
    ISBN9780062445292
    Author

    Ellen Feldman

    Ellen Feldman, a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow, is the author of The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank, Scottsboro, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and Next To Love. She lives in New York City with her husband.

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    Reviews for Terrible Virtue

    3.5/5

    32 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Margaret Sanger is known as the woman who brought the conversation about birth control out into the open. She was one of 13 living children her mother had in a very unhappy marriage – there were also miscarriages along the way and she saw what the unending pregnancies did to her mother’s physical and mental well being. She wasn’t sure she wanted to even get married and have children but she ultimately did – not that she held to her vows or really care for her children. Her “baby” was contraception.The book is written in her voice and she is a really hard character to get behind – she is not a very likable woman but as a woman I have to be grateful for her pioneering the cause. Far too many women were having far too many children and it was not good for them or the babies they couldn’t provide for.Margaret gave a lot up for her passion but so did her family. One has to wonder why she went down such a traditional path when she was so obviously a women ahead of her time living a very nontraditional life. I was pleased to have read this fictionalized version of her life. It wasn’t perfect but neither was she – despite the good she did. I’ll be interested in finding further volumes to read to round out my knowledge.
    • 4/5
      I pretty much knew Margaret Sanger as an early birth control advocate, but this short novel unveiled her fascinating life and mission. Ahead of her time, Margaret was involved in early twentieth-century socialism before taking up her signature issue of birth control. Surprisingly (to me), she also practiced free love - engaging in a number of extramarital affairs during both of her marriages. I know there is more to dig into with Margaret's life - the book skated over her embrace of eugenics rather neatly - but I found myself really empathizing with this woman whose cause still feels current and pressing.
    • 4/5
      Original review posted on my blog:

      I participated in a TLC Book Tour and was provided a copy of the book by the publisher for an honest review.

      Terrible Virture by Ellen Feldman
      Harper, 2016
      Fiction (Historical); 272 pgs

      Terrible Virtue is coming out at a time when it is needed most. Women's health rights are being brought into question--and I do not just mean on the abortion front. Whether you are for or against abortion, or fall somewhere in between, the reality is women have had to fight every step of the way to gain some control over their own lives throughout history, including the use of contraceptives. As I write this review, the California Senate has passed a law allowing birth control to be distributed without a doctor's prescription. The law is not without its opponents, to be sure. But I imagine Margaret Sanger would be smiling from ear to ear, maybe even dancing for joy.

      There was a time when the law (the Comstock Laws) limited and prohibited the sale and advertisement of contraceptives. Just to talk about them was not only considered indecent but was illegal as well. Not only was it considered lewd and immoral, but it was also seen as promoting promiscuity (some would say this is true still today). With the changing times came the women's suffragist movement in which women began to ask for the right to vote. They wanted to be heard, and rightfully so. Along with that came women like Margaret Sanger who advocated for women's health issues; her top priority being contraceptives (what she would later come to call birth control).

      Terrible Virtue is a novel about Margaret's life, particularly the early years of her activism and fight for women's rights. Ellen Feldman recreates Margaret's life, imagining what it must have been like for Margaret in a time when so many seemed against her as she fought for social change. One of eleven children, Margaret knew hardship of growing up in a home with so many children as her mother and father struggled to care for them all. It isn't surprising that Margaret would take an activist role given her upbringing and her beliefs. She felt very passionately about many things, but especially about educating women about their bodies and about the use of contraceptives.


      As a nurse working in the tenements with the working class and the poor, she saw how the women struggled, unable to control the number of children they had, dying in childbirth, and sometimes performing abortions on themselves. Margaret wanted to spare them that. No one should have to use a button hook to perform an abortion. As a result, Margaret fought hard to educate women from all walks of life about their contraceptive options, writing up pamphlets and providing advice that flew in the face of the Comstock Laws. She wanted to save lives and give these women some control over their own lives. She would go on to open the first clinic in 1916 for women's health issues, specializing in providing them with information on birth control and family planning. She is known today as the founder of Planned Parenthood.

      Margaret devoted her life to her cause, believing the only way to change the law was to first break it. Her path was not an easy one. She sacrificed much in the end. Including her family. I really felt for her children who longed for the love and attention of their mother. While I do imagine Margaret loved them, she wasn't really there for them. Her cause was her first love. Her children always took a backseat. Her marriage suffered as well. Although, that wasn't as surprising given Margaret's view on traditional marriage. Her many affairs were, for the most part, out in the open. Her husband knew going in what her beliefs about fidelity were--she thought he agreed. As much as I might disagree with her choice in lifestyle, it isn't fair of me to fault Margaret for hers as open and honest as she was about it all, at least not when I really think about it.

      Written in memoir style, it was hard to remember this novel is fiction. Author Ellen Feldman paints Margaret Sanger as the human being she likely was, both her admirable qualities and her many flaws. She was charismatic and passionate. She was extremely competitive and determined, at at time when both qualities were viewed as negatives in a woman. Margaret could be ruthless and calculating, but she also could be generous and thoughtful. While I admire Margaret in many ways for the strides she made, I admit to not being a fan of her on a personal level. Whether that's because of the way she was drawn in the novel or based on her real character, is hard to say. That would depend on how realistic the author was in her portrayal of Margaret.

      Periodically throughout the novel, Feldman includes viewpoints of others in Margaret's life written in the form of letters to Margaret. The one from her middle child was particular poignant. And another from her sister was quite revealing. All help form a more whole picture of who Margaret was and the impact it had on those around her.

      There is some controversy surrounding Margaret Sanger in regards to her involvement with the Eugenics movement, which, while addressed in the book to some degree, is mostly glossed over--something I wish the author had delved into a little more deeply. I could not help but do a little digging of my own after a conversation I had with a coworker on the subject. I can see why Eugenics might have been appealing, especially to someone like Margaret who was in the medical profession. It was a popular theory at the time, and while she did not subscribe to the whole of Eugenics, Margaret did support it in part, at least as far as it played into her ideas surrounding birth control. She felt strongly about any decision regarding family planning being in the hands of the individual. There is a lot of misinformation out there, including quotes attributed to Margaret that weren't actually hers and statements she made taken out of context--this done in an effort to discredit and suppress her. This, at least, Feldman does mention to some extent.

      I admit I had only known the bare basics about Margaret Sanger before reading Ellen Feldman's novel Terrible Virtue. Margaret was a fierce supporter of women's rights and pushing for necessary social change. She fought hard and sacrificed much. Feldman reminds us, however, that Margaret was also very human, and at times conflicted, especially where her children were concerned. I imagine there is much more to the woman than Feldman could possibly cover in her novel--or else it would turn into a biography.Overall, I found Terrible Virtue to be a compelling and fascinating book about a significant figure in American history.
    • 3/5
      When I finished this novel, I wished that I had read a decent biography instead. I didn't know too much about Margaret Sanger, aside that she was a crusader for birth control, but this book made her pretty superficial and unlikable. Driven by the memory of her mother going through 18 pregnancies, Margaret, who started out as a nurse, devoted her life to helping women learn about family planning. Well, that and, if you buy what this novel puts forth, screwing just about every man that she encountered. No sooner do they meet than Margaret is feeling an electric spark and recognizing how attractive she is, and before you know it, she's lifting her skirts wherever she happens to be. (And the writing in these scenes is just awful--repetitive and cliché.) I guess this makes more sense now that I know that she hung around with the socialist/free love crowd in the early part of the century (Jack Reid, Emma Goldman, etc.), but it got tiresome. She expresses some guilt about being a "bad mother" to her three children, and on the whole, Terrible Virtue does depict her as one. But of course, motherhood is supposedly one of the sacrifices she made for her cause. She feels especially guilty about her daughter's death; young Peggy came down with pneumonia during one of her speaking tours, and although Margaret made it hope to nurse her in the hospital, she blames herself for not having been there to prevent the illness in the first place. Throughout the book, she sees all the women who come to her for advice as Peggys, and she is haunted by dreams of her dead daughter, with whom she tries to converse through mediums. My guess is that the author intended to portray her as a woman who suffered from the personal sacrifices she made in order to change other women's lives, but she often came across to me as selfish, ambitious, and vain. This novel sparked enough interest in Margaret Sanger to send me off to look for a reputable biography, but I really can't recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Margaret Sanger has influenced the lives of millions of women. Most of us know the name, but possibly little else. Ellen Feldman recreates Sanger's life and times in a fictionalized biography that shows Sanger in a sympathetic light, but introduces voices that offer competing interpretations of Sanger's personality and behavior. What seems unquestionable is Sanger's courage and determination. A very timely subject and engagingly written.
    • 4/5
      Margaret Sanger is known as the woman who brought the conversation about birth control out into the open. She was one of 13 living children her mother had in a very unhappy marriage – there were also miscarriages along the way and she saw what the unending pregnancies did to her mother’s physical and mental well being. She wasn’t sure she wanted to even get married and have children but she ultimately did – not that she held to her vows or really care for her children. Her “baby” was contraception.The book is written in her voice and she is a really hard character to get behind – she is not a very likable woman but as a woman I have to be grateful for her pioneering the cause. Far too many women were having far too many children and it was not good for them or the babies they couldn’t provide for.Margaret gave a lot up for her passion but so did her family. One has to wonder why she went down such a traditional path when she was so obviously a women ahead of her time living a very nontraditional life. I was pleased to have read this fictionalized version of her life. It wasn’t perfect but neither was she – despite the good she did. I’ll be interested in finding further volumes to read to round out my knowledge.
    • 4/5
      There has been a recent trend of historical novels featuring women many of us don't know much about. Paula McLain's The Paris Wife about Hadley Hemingway, Ernest's first wife, began the trend a few years ago, and some more recent ones include McLain's Circling the Sun (about aviatrix Beryl Markham) and a book I recently loved and reviewed The First Daughter, about Thomas' Jefferson's daughter Patsy. (My review here)Ellen Feldman's Terrible Virtue tells the story of Margaret Sanger, widely regarded as the woman who helped bring about birth control education for women and the founder of Planned Parenthood. I didn't know much about Sanger, so I was curious to read more about her.Sanger's mother had thirteen children and her father was an alcoholic who fancied himself a socialist atheist philosopher. Sanger watched her mother give birth year after year and become a shell of a woman, worn out by caring for so many children without any help from her husband.Margaret was intelligent and thanks to her older sisters who raised enough money, she was able to attend nursing school. She also became passionate about social justice, as well as men. She had relationships with many men and believed in free love.Yet she married Bill Sanger and they had three children- two sons and daughter named Peggy. Peggy was diagnosed with polio, a diagnosis Margaret disagreed with, and she refused to let her daughter wear a leg brace.One day Margaret was asked to speak to some women about health issues, and she began to talk about contraception, which was a forbidden topic at the time. Women were hungry for more information and soon Margaret's talks drew more and more women.She also drew attention from authorities and Margaret was arrested. Margaret fled the country for Europe, leaving behind her family. When she eventually returned, she devoted so much of her time and energy to the issue of contraception and women's health that her relationship with her husband and children suffered.The story is told from Margaret's point of view, with some characters- her husband, her son, her sister, her lawyer and others in her life- telling their story in small doses. I think the novel may have been stronger if we heard more of their voices.It was difficult for me to completely empathize with Margaret. She is, to say the least, a very complicated character. She was a pioneer in women's health, and her determination to help women understand and have access to contraception changed the world for women. So many poor women were trapped, forced year after year to have babies because contraception was not available to them.But she wasn't a good mother or wife. It's one thing to say that her husband knew what he was getting into with Margaret and her extramarital affairs, but her children didn't deserve to have an absentee mother. They were sent a boarding school that was horrible, and at the end of her life, I wonder how much she regretted not having a better relationship with them.I recommend Terrible Virtue as it brings to light how difficult life was for women because they didn't have any control over basic health care regarding contraception. The world changed dramatically for women once this happened, and Margaret Sanger was the one who changed it.
    • 3/5
      Two words describe Ellen Feldman’s historical fiction novel about Margaret Sanger: Relevant and controversial. Margaret Sanger fought a fight for the good of downtrodden women, all the while leading a personal life open to question. It is well known that American women had few rights in 1900. Because of social convention, fears of pregnancy hovered over them like dark clouds. Margaret Sanger, intent on improving her own position in society, and mourning the state of her own mother (who gave birth to thirteen children), eventually devoted herself to the cause of legalizing contraception. Eager to bettering lives of women faced with unwanted pregnancies, abortion, and shame, she played a pivotal role in legalizing birth control for women. Her mission: To give women of all economic levels access to birth control in the United States. This trailblazer was accused of muddying the waters and met opposition by:•Imprisonment•Court cases•Exile to England•Journalistic censureIn Sanger’s voice, Feldman addresses the common criticisms leveled against the feminist and mother of the birth control movement. She focuses a lens on Margaret Sanger’s enigmatic personal life. Sanger, one of thirteen siblings, mourned her mother’s premature death. The daughter of an alcoholic father, she married with trepidation. A trained nurse, she suffered from tuberculosis. Frightened of the responsibility, Sanger became a wife and mother. She broke sexual taboos and struggled with family responsibility. She triumphed in the establishment of Planned Parenthood, but sacrificed her family. Her life ended in heartbreak and isolation. Historically accurate, the book hinges on a first person narrative by Sanger, which downplays the events surrounding the birth-control movement in favor of her own personal agenda. Pocket narratives by her children and husbands fill in detail. If the reader can move past Sanger’s self-focused aggrandizement, he will cheer, chide and salute the strides made for the female sex. On the cusp of Planned Parenthood’s centennial in October 2016, Miss Feldman successfully navigates the controversy over the pioneer who sacrificed personally for the good of all women.The title stems from a Margaret Sanger quote from 1914:“It is only rebel woman, when she gets out of the habits imposed on her by bourgeois convention, who can do some deed of terrible virtue.”