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This paper, which makes available the forgotten pictures and previously unnoticed complexites drawn from articles, introduces aspects of the work of a neglected naturalist and evolutionist writer of the late nineteenth century in Victorian era. In particular, this paper focuses on Allen's analysis of the social construction of marriage and his concern of the future race and the concomitant issue of motherhood and social progress. On the issue of recognizing and validating women's role as mothers and entitling them public recognition as a social contributor, Allen is in line with early feminists known as eugenic feminists such as Sarah Grand and Frances Swiney. As to the mechanism of evolution, however, Allen differed from their view in that he regarded nature as a driving force whereas eugenic feminist saw human control as the key note in the evolutionary process. Such tension is witnessed in Allen's New Woman Novel, The Woman Who Did (1895) in which the protagonist Herminia seeks women's emancipation through her task of mothering premised on eugenic ideology. Ironizing Herminia's failure and her death, Allen calls into question the practicability of the discourse constituting the eugenic project. Drawing on the theories on evolution and Richardson's concept of “eugenic love”, this paper examines social implication in Herminia's maternal agenda and investigates the condition of her project which is already doomed to fail.
