Mizora

Mizora by Mary E Bradley Lane, published in 1890, is is the first feminist technological Utopia and the first portrait of an all-female, self-sufficient society. Exiled to Siberia, female explorer Vera Zarovitch discovers an all-woman world. But where are all the men? And what would happen to society and culture, if men simply ceased to exist?

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What happens when you leave everything you know behind? Your husband, your child, your identity - even your own world? 
 
After clashing with the political leanings of the Czarist regime, Vera Zarovitch is exiled to Siberia. She drifts for a while, travelling through the wilderness and interacting with various communities before reaching the Arctic.
 
Faced with the decision to survive in the cold or keep moving, Vera takes a small boat out onto the sea in an attempt to escape, but her boat is mysteriously swallowed, spiralling down into the water and deep below. She emerges not into heaven or hell, but something in-between - Mizora, a hidden, all-female society in the innermost underground corners of the earth.
 
Stranded with little way back, Vera embarks on an unforeseen adventure in morality, biology, science and emotion, a journey that spans almost two decades. The community of Mizora is like nothing seen above; their language is strange, their chemical experiments advanced and their families lack any sign of the male species.
 
Torn between what she knows and what she wants to know, Vera must decide - does she assimilate into this odd new land or does she bring her knew-found knowledge back to the surface?