“The floating home, then, had already begun to function very perfectly for the day. It was precisely the perfect functioning of the organism that upset her. Every contrivance in it was a man’s contrivance. Woman had naught to do with its excellence. It would function with the same perfection whether she happened to be there or not. It was orderly, it was comfortable; and men had accomplished it and were maintaining it all by themselves.
And the males seemed to have an understanding amongst themselves, as if they belonged to a secret monastic or masonic order. She was outside the understanding. She was a woman, ornamental no doubt, but unnecessary. Well, she resented this great happiness. So that the next afternoon Alice had a headache.”
Arnold Bennett – The Yacht (1924)
(Bennett, a keen boatman, was an incredibly prolific author. In a career spanning three decades he published 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories and 13 plays, plus scores of essays and a mountain of journalism. He died of typhoid fever after unwisely drinking tap water in Paris.)
