to apply existing social paradigms which require gender categorisation. Gender and sexuality The novel has been cited as a predecessor of other feminist utopias and modern radical feminist thinking on gender and sexuality. Some commentators draw attention to how the novel initially avoids the use of gendered pronouns, instead referring to characters as a "figure", "person" or "personage", yet as the novel progresses, gendered pronouns such as "she" are increasingly used and feminine characteristics are blatantly valued. Others, such as Sonja Tiernan, argue that despite Armeria being presented as genderless, the characters all appear to be female. Emily Hamer calls the book a lesbian love story. The author's deliberate avoidance of gendering the book's characters has been contrasted to Ursula K. Leguin's 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness, which uses masculine pronouns to refer to its genderless characters. It has also been compared to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, published six years later, in 1915, with Beatrice the Sixteenth described as being "more radical". The book is considered to be an early example of transgender literature. Marriage Sonja Tiernan argues that the book is critical of heterosexual marriage and presents it as only being redeemable when it's based on a relationship between people of the same gender. Reception The novel sold badly and copies were still held by the publisher in the 1950s. It was described as "well written, interesting and its characters are more than mere puppets" by one contemporary reviewer. Another argued that the "Adventures of Mary Hatherley" would have been a better title, but praised the vegetarianism of the Armerians. A review in the Herald of the Cross interpreted the book as having a spiritual and occult message, stating that the author "means it to represent the Soul's experience upon an occult plane of consciousness". Louise Radford Wells described the novel as a "quite unusual story" and was initially confused by the sex of the characters, until realising that "every heroine is also a hero"; she ended her review stating that the book "is very well written and proves entertaining". A review in The Guardian speculated whether the author was an avid suffragist. It also described the society in the book as a delightful place, but felt that the book lacked additional details about the society's workings. Overall, it called the style of the book incoherent, but felt that it presented interesting ideas. Criticism One contemporary reviewer