Edith Ayrton Zangwill's The Call

Book excerpt: Edith Ayrton Zangwill's 1924 novel The Call is widely regarded as one of the most important suffrage novels of the early 20th century. Including authoritative notes and commentary throughout, this is the first comprehensive scholarly edition of the novel. The Call tells the story of a young chemist, Ursula Winfield, who comes of age in the years before the start of the First World War. Confronted by the gross injustices faced by women and the working class in early 20th-century Britain, she is drawn inexorably and with increasing militancy into the suffragette movement. The story charts the conflict between her political commitments and her personal life as the Great War approaches. Alongside the definitive text of the novel, this edition also includes contextual historical documents – from contemporary reviews of the novel to newspaper coverage of the suffragette movement – and critical chapters by leading scholars exploring the world of the novel.