This critical review mainly emphasizes the representation of feminism in Nancy Spring's An Enola Holmes Mystery #1: The Case of The Missing Marquess (2006), which also has a Netflix adaptation of Enola Holmes by Henry Bradbeer.
The main target for this work is mostly teenagers to young adults, seeing how the content of this book has many depictions of feminism back in the day, little to almost no rights for women, and how unbalanced the gender roles are in general. It also uses a rather high-level vocabulary which a younger audience might find hard to digest.
As the book is known as historical fiction, naturally the setting for this novel is in the early 1900s of England. The story is about Enola's mother who one day disappears on Enola's fourteenth birthday.
Initially, Enola feels offended at her mother's disappearance, thinking that she has yet again ignored and completely neglected her even on her birthday.
But as her absence is prolonged, Enola gets curious and seeks to find out the reason behind it. When she eventually discovered that her mother not only went out on a whim but instead made a deliberate escape from her life. She experiences a mixture of anger that she had been abandoned and longing for the freedom that her mother chose to take.
Enola has two older brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft, who came home to also find their mother. Being much younger than the two and also a girl, they treat her rather condescending and conclude that their mother's actions are based on typical feminine hysteria. Eventually, the brothers decided to send Enola away to boarding school so she can be a "proper young lady". At this, Enola finally breaks and starts scheming.
Enola goes through a character shift, from the whiny and frustrated young woman she eventually realizes that she possessed the ability and knowledge to take action. She quietly steals the estate and somehow avoids boarding school entirely. Her journey is rather rough and she managed to mature in a very short time out of necessity.
In Enola Holmes's novel of several acts is delivered through a series of scenes and a strengthening dialogue about gender discrimination. In the novel, Mycroft Holmes (Enola's first older brother) has a way of thinking that assumes that women must have manners and must follow the rules of the norm at that time. Not only that Mycroft has a way of looking women must look elegant. This is seen in the scene when Enola Holmes picks up Mycroft Holmes and Sherlock Holmes at the train station.
Mycroft looked at Enola with an astonished look and looked disgusted at Enola's messy appearance. Evidenced by Mycroft's dialogue, "Gosh. Look at you. You're a complete mess. Where are your hats and " From Mycroft's dialogue aimed at Enola, it is seen that Mycrof viewed women by European standards in the 18th century. From the evidence, Enola got gender discrimination from her brother from the way she looked.
The scene depicts the unfair treatment of Enola Holmes from Mycroft Holmes when Enola is forced to go to school at Miss Harrison's School of Female Personality. Enola Holmes needs to be disciplined by teaching her women manners, manners, and ways of thinking to be accepted in society.
Mycroft wants to shape and organize Enola so that his life does not deviate like his mother. Enola doesn't like Mycroft's plan to put her in a personality school. Because of this, Enola Holmes decides to look for clues to find her mother. Enola escapes from Ferndell Hall for London in search of her missing mother.