Tehanu

Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea

In Tehanu, Ursula K. Le Guin returned to Earthsea, finishing a story she had begun in the mid-1970s, and has described as the missing fourth leg of a stool. The fourth book in the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin (not the last book of Earthsea, despite the title), Tehanu is the story of Tenar and Therru, a mature woman and an abused girl-child.

In Tehanu, Le Guin views Earthsea, a patriarchal and sexist world, through a grown woman's eyes. The sexism which was evident to the reader before in all the stories is now felt and noticed by the lead character. The protagonist Tenar explicitly questions her society's strictures and injustices.

... Earthsea's distinctly male bias. Nearly all fantasy fiction, from C.S. Lewis' "Narnia" to J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings," featured male protagonists. Le Guin acknowledges, "That's how hero stories worked." She started on a fourth book in the mid-'70s to correct the imbalance, but put it aside. "Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea" finally appeared in 1990 and won the Nebula. In this story Le Guin shows the underside of Earthsea from the point of view of a mature woman and a battered girl.