In Defense of Women
About this audiobook
Originally published in 1918, this book considers topics that remain of vital interest to today’s readers, including monogamy and polygamy, the double standard, sexual harassment, and declining marriage rates. Written in Mencken’s characteristic no-nonsense manner, In Defense of Women crackles with controversy and caustic wit.
“The truth is that neither sex, without some fertilization by the complementary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor. Man, without a saving touch of woman in him, is too doltish, too naive and romantic, too easily deluded and lulled to sleep by his imagination to be anything above a cavalryman, a theologian, or a bank director. And woman, without some trace of that divine innocence which is masculine, is too harshly the realist for those vast projections of the fancy which lie at the heart of what we call genius. Here, as elsewhere in the universe, the best effects are obtained by a mingling of elements.”—H. L. Mencken
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About the author
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) was an American journalist, critic, essayist, satirist, and scholar. He began his career on local newspapers in 1899, becoming a reporter for the Baltimore Morning Herald and then serving on the staff of the Baltimore Sun. He is best known for the aggressive iconoclasm of his editorial policies, challenging cherished beliefs and institutions. The term “Menckenian” has entered multiple dictionaries to describe anything of or pertaining to Mencken, including his combative rhetorical and prose style.
Fred Williams, a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, works in theater, film, television, and radio in England, Ireland, and America. Besides narrating audiobooks, he is a performer in living-history reenactments, an archer, and a poet.
