Herland: Chapter 1: A Not Unnatural Enterprise Summary & Analysis

The narrator writes that this account is being written from memory because he was not able to bring his notes, pictures of the buildings and women, and records with him when he left the country. The narrator states that he won’t provide details of where this mysterious country is for fear of inspiring other adventurers, missionaries, or greedy expansionists to try and find it. He assures the reader that the people in the country he’s writing about don’t want those kinds of people to find them—and, if someone does find that country, they won’t get along as well as the narrator and his group did.

The narrator introduces himself as Vandyck Jennings and his comrades (men he had been friends with for years before they began their adventure) as Terry O. Nicholson and Jeff Margrave. Terry is a wealthy adventurer, thirsty to explore new lands and upset that so much of the world has already been explored and mapped. Terry is an apt airman with plenty of money to spend on equipment for the group’s journeys. Jeff is a doctor by trade, but also a natural poet with a strong interest in botany. Vandyck (called “Van”) is a sociologist but takes an interest in any topic that has to do with humanity. Van writes that when the three men were given the chance to join an expedition in mostly uncharted territory, all three jumped at the chance. However, this expedition is only the starting point of their larger adventure.

In a flashback, Van’s interest is piqued when he hears the guides talking about the existence of a mysterious “Woman Land” up in the mountains. According to rumors, this land is full of women and girls—not one man or boy lives there. These rumors, however, have not been verified as fact because, aside from one man many years ago, no man who goes looking for Woman Land ever comes back. Jeff, Terry, and Van initially balk at these rumors, but on the last day of their expedition one of their guides leads them to a waterfall flowing over the face of an enormous cliff. The river that the waterfall feeds into has traces of dye and a piece of some kind of cloth in it. According to the guide, this is proof of the existence of Woman Land somewhere over the cliff.

After seeing the dye, the men begin to wonder if Woman Land is actually real. Terry wants to climb up the cliff right away, but the guide refuses to go up himself. So instead, Terry tells Jeff and Van that they should return home to America, make preparations for an extended expedition, and return to the waterfall to discover whether Woman Land exists or not. Van notes that the dye and cloth indicate the existence of a civilization with the ability to spin, weave, and dye clothing better than the other local tribes, although Jeff and Terry express some doubt because if the civilization is so developed, then it would have been discovered long ago. The men debate the existence of Woman Land all the way back to America and during the time it takes Terry to make arrangements for their return.

Terry’s immense wealth proves invaluable as he prepares his massive yacht, motorboat, plane, and other supplies for the group’s expedition. As they travel by sea from America to the mysterious country, the men discuss their plan to take the motorboat up the river to the waterfall and then fly over the cliff by plane, leaving instructions for where to find them at a nearby consul in case they don’t return after a month. Despite these instructions, the men laugh at the notion that a rescue party might have to save them from a country full of women.

Van writes that Jeff, a true romantic, believes that if the country exists, it must be a veritable paradise of “roses and babies and canaries.” Terry, on the other hand, is preoccupied with the idea that he will be surrounded by women who will adore him as much as American women do. Van believes his idea of the country will prove closer to the truth: it might be a matriarchy, but men and boys do in fact live there, albeit apart from the women. Van also assures Terry that women in this kind of civilization are perfectly capable of defending themselves.

In the present, Van tells the audience that his guess was no closer to the truth than what Jeff or Terry believed the country and the people there would be like. In fact, Van says that it’s “funny” to think back to the ideas the group initially had about the country with the benefit of hindsight. Their speculations about what the society would be like continued as they made their journey up the river to the waterfall, always beginning with the phrase: “Admitting the improbability.”

Returning to his flashback, Van writes that Terry believes the women must always be fighting each other because, as women, it’s part of their nature. Jeff opposes this idea and insists that the women enjoy a peaceful existence with a strong sense of sisterhood. Van, however, balks at Jeff’s idea and insists that because the women are all mothers, there will be no universal bond of sisterhood. Terry reasserts his belief that the women are always fighting and insists that the society will be very primitive, despite evidence of their skill at weaving and dying clothing. He also shares his belief that the women will fight over him and that, eventually, he’ll be elected king. He jokingly adds that the other two men will have to be executed for the safety of his throne.

Once again returning to the present, Van writes that he struggled to keep the peace between Jeff and Terry because they had such divergent opinions of women. Van describes Jeff as being chivalrous, sentimental, and an idealizer of women. In contrast, Terry is a “man’s man” that most men wouldn’t want their sisters to date. Terry, according to Van, considered beautiful women to be “game,” and was indifferent towards those he didn’t consider beautiful. Jeff, however, could be just as annoying because he put “rose-colored haloes” on all women. Van describes himself as taking a more scientific view of women and adamantly believed that women have “physiological limitations.” Van states that no man in the group held progressive views of women.

Back in the events of the past, Terry, Van, and Jeff secure their motorboat on the lake and prepare to fly over the cliff. Van suggests that the group should first observe the country from the sky before exploring by foot. The group agrees and they fly over the cliff. From the air, they see forests, but also cities and parks. They fly the plane a little lower and observe that the land looks more like a garden than a jungle. They finally spot crowds of people and note that the crowds are made up entirely of women and girls. Van says that there “must be men” because the cities look highly developed. Terry abruptly decides to land the plane, despite Jeff’s protests that they should fly around some more. The men hide the plane in some brush and begin walking to “Herland.”