The Woman Who Did (1895) tells the story of a young, self-assured middle-class woman, who defies convention as a matter of principle and is fully prepared to suffer the consequences of her actions. First published in London by John Lane in a series intended to promote the ideal of the “New Woman”, the novel introduces Herminia Barton, a Cambridge-educated daughter of a clergyman.
Herminia frees herself from her parents’ influence and moves to London, where she decides to live alone. As she is not a woman of independent means, she starts working as a teacher. When she meets and falls in love with Alan Merrick, a lawyer, she suggests they live together without getting married. Reluctantly, he agrees, and the couple move to Italy. There, in Florence, Merrick dies of typhoid before their daughter Dolores is born. Legal technicalities and the fact that the couple were not married prevent Herminia from inheriting Merrick’s money.
Allen was sympathetic to the feminist cause and saw his novel as a way to promote women’s rights. The Woman Who Did created an immediate popular sensation. Flora Thompson wrote how, in a small town in Hampshire, “copies were bought and handed round until practically everyone of mature age in the village had read and passed judgement on it”. Conservative readers as well as feminists criticised Allen for the heroine he had invented. Victoria Crosse wrote her novel The Woman Who Didn’t (1895) as a response to Allen’s book and Mrs. Lovett Cameron wrote The Man Who Didn’t.