The Silent Partner (novel)

Serving as a critique of domesticity and poor workforce conditions, the novel features themes of pro-feminism, classism, industrialism, anti-capitalism, sexism and socioeconomics.

Published in 1871, The Silent Partner is set in industrial-era Massachusetts and explores real life issues that took hold in the rapid urbanization of major U.S. cities throughout the 18th and 19th century, including child labor, constant machinery-related fatalities, and unfair wage rates amongst unsafe conditions.

The novel also discusses broader themes of misogyny and feminism within the corporate sphere that also reflected real-life instances of discrimination against women's roles and contributions in the workplace.

[4] Though obscure to a mainstream audience many historians, literary analysts, and journal outlets have critiqued and theorized the connections between the novel and real-life circumstances of the Industrial Age.

The New York Times reviewed the novel in May 1871, arguing that it had a dreary plot because a young woman sheds her comforted life for a world of poor conditions and unfair treatment.