Summary

In "Freely at Night," Chapter 1, an old friend contacts Solnit and sends her all the letters she wrote him as a young woman. When she opens the letters, she notes how much she was hiding behind language, crafting a barrier between language and herself. Any truth about her life, particularly the dangers she experienced as a woman were parenthetical, and disregarded by the friend. In one letter she described an essay she planned to write about darkness. She draws on Sylvia Plath's writing to substantiate her thoughts about living in fear.

In Chapter 2, Solnit found a haven, a new life, through books. Retreating from her world, she became lost in fictional and historical realms. In countless stories, women were silenced, inanimate, murdered, metamorphosed into other objects or creatures.

In Chapter 3, Solnit describes the safety and freedom she...