The Authorship of Two Girls on a Barge (1891), Reassessed

Until recently, the novel Two Girls on a Barge (1891) has been attributed to Canadian author and journalist Sara Jeannette Duncan (1861–1922), writing under the pseudonym “V. Cecil Cotes.” This article provides evidence that, while Duncan did appear to have influenced the style and structure of the novel, the author was Violet Cecil Cotes (1868–1915), Duncan’s sister-in-law.

Psyche’s Daughter of Today: Sara Jeannette Duncan and the New Woman

The Canadian novelist Sara Jeannette Duncan (1861-1922) constructed a New Woman heroine in the fin-de- siecle novel; A Daughter of Today (1894). Written in the popular mode of the transatlantic novel; the work engages in debate on the appropriate construction of femininity in art and public life. The heroine; Elfrida Bell; descends from artist; to muse; to model; to painted image—a descent framed by a rival male artist and a hostile London art scene. Represented as Psyche; the heroine undergoes a quest and failure similar to the mythical one. Adaptation of the Psyche myth clarifies the position of Duncan in the spectrum of gender ideologies of the fin-de- siecle.