[HERmione] is remarkably engaging. Completed in 1927 at the height of the modernist period, the novel has a surprisingly contemporary ring. Its vitality, arising in part from H. D.'s experience, depends upon the bisexual nature of the relationships involved and the emergence of the protagonist as an artist. (pp. 93-4)

[The] sensitive nature of the novel's content prevented its publication during the lifetime of the principals…. Though all of H. D.'s work contains deeply personal material, careful encoding and a willingness to risk exposure allowed her to publish much of it during her lifetime. Not so with HERmione….

By its very nature H. D.'s poetry, especially the later mythical works, allowed privacy, but her prose, even the most guarded, created something of a problem. Much of the early prose remains in manuscript form. However, she released two novels soon after finishing them: Palimpsest (1926), the story of three women of different historical periods who lived virtually the same life, closely parallel to H. D.'s; and Hedylus (1928), the account of a young male poet's struggle to attain selfhood and independence—a struggle much like the one which occurs in HERmione. (p. 94)

HERmione treats a particularly distressing period of H. D.'s life from which she emerged aware of her sexual proclivities and artistic potential and aware also of the near impossibility of a woman's becoming independent in the patriarchal society. While H. D. may not have been aware earlier of the full implications of her experiences, in writing the novel she overlooked none of the psychological ramifications.

The narrative covers the summer after Her Gart failed "conic sections" at Bryn Mawr. She feels that she has failed her parents completely, has let down her brother, and has lost a sense of herself: "I am Hermione Gart, a failure."

During this period of confusion, Her becomes involved simultaneously with two exciting young people: George Lowndes, a wild young poet just back from Europe [modeled after Ezra Pound], and Fayne Rabb, a young woman "fey with the same sort of wildness" as Her, herself. At first Her's parents oppose her meeting Lowndes…. When Her announces her engagement to George, they are appalled. However, learning that his family has some wealth and that his mother is a literary person, they withdraw their objections, and Her's mother actually looks forward to the marriage. Although the heterosexual romance seems to be progressing, it is in fact declining, for Her has become infatuated with Fayne. Both Her's parents and George strongly object to Her's attachment to the psychologically intense young woman….

The intimacies of the two relationships contrast sharply. Her enjoys the excitement of her forest walks with George, but she resents his ambivalence toward her poetry, his harlequin stance toward life, and especially his attitude toward her. He would want her to be a traditional wife, to be "decorative," to be the subject of his poems. Furthermore, Her is repulsed by George's sexual advances, which she thinks violent and humiliating…. (p. 95)

Ultimately, both relationships, through an ironic turn, disintegrate. Her regrets not at all the loss of George, as she had already rejected him…. But she is greatly distressed at the loss of Fayne. Her tenuous state worsens to a complete collapse which lasts for months. When she comes out of her illness, she accepts her vocation as a writer and sets out to develop her gift.

The simple recounting of major events only hints at the complex levels of understanding H. D. reaches in HERmione. Stream of consciousness precisely reflects Her's mental state. The discontinuity of the story line allows changes in Her's perceptions of herself and others to deepen toward sophistication, and the interior monologues replicate the confusion, frustration, and anxiety on which Her's life turns. The pervasive use of forest imagery emphasizes the extent to which Her (woman) is immersed in nature, and it also reveals George's (man's) inability to respect and value nature. (pp. 95-6)

Chapter 6 of Part One emphasizes H. D.'s thesis that as a woman artist struggles to achieve selfhood and independence of the male-dominated society, she may find her greatest support in another woman….

In writing HERmione H. D. committed a daring act, the harbinger of her daringly unconventional life and a lifetime of unconventional works which would have to wait years for a receptive climate. HERmione places the rest in perspective. (p. 96)