FLYING WITH WINGS OF WAX

A fevered, strenuous fictional life of Swiss pioneering feminist Emily Kempin-Spyri—the first woman to earn a Doctorate of Law in Europe—that smolders with feminist mission. In 1888, Emily traveled to New York and led an effort to establish a school of law for women. She died in 1901 in a Basel asylum. Emily was the daughter of a stern pastor, one who was broad- minded only ``when it came to materialism,'' and who was inflexible in enforcing the double standard. The only female family member exhibiting any degree of independence was aunt-by-marriage Johanna, author of Heidi (Hasler offers a formidable portrait), but even Johanna declared that the sole object of female learning was to help one's children. It will be Emily's gentle failure of a husband (pastor, social reformer, would-be journalist) who teaches her Latin and university prerequisites. At 34, then, Emily receives her degree in 1887 from the university at Zurich (the rare institution that allowed women to attend classes). Meanwhile, America beckons, and she finds a thrilling momentum among the wealthy feminists of New York. But despite stunning successes—lectures, fetes, and the triumph of founding a school of law for women—there are also the domestic demands of husband and three children. The marriage frays, Walter returns to Zurich, and soon Emily follows—to find poverty, humiliations, and doors closing rather than opening to her. Finally, she's victim to the unbearable tension that's caused by the desperate struggle to stay afloat in waves of social condemnation, rejection, and inner guilts, shame, and anger. She dies in an asylum (which, in fact, the author finds, has no record of her residence). Hasler has conjured up dream visitations of chimeric hopes and mangled memories in a cold and repressive institution. A highly colored tribute, which flickers back and forth in time, to a gifted woman who lived beyond her strength.