Trixy

At the height of her fame in the nineteenth century, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844-1911) was a highly visible author and women's rights advocate. Phelps is still best-known for her Spiritualist novel, The Gates Ajar" (1868), which offered a comforting view of the afterlife to (women) readers traumatized by the Civil War, and was the century's second bestselling novel, after "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Phelps has received increased critical attention in the last twenty years, but while her work begun has begunto be restored, most scholars have glossed over the most passionate cause of her late career -- her campaign against animal vivisection. In the 1904 novel "Trixy," Phelps centered this then-common practice of experimenting on live animals, which she believed was cruel, immoral, and degrading. This contemporary edition of "Trixy" restores Phelps' role in the history of animal rights advocacy, and recovers contributions critical to her literary activism. Emily VanDette's introduction notes that Phelps' protest writing -- which included fiction, essays, and speeches -- was ahead of its time. And as well-known authors like Peter Singer, Jonathan Safran Foer, Donna Haraway, and Gary Francione have extended her vision, they have also created new audiences for her work"--Provided by publisher.