Rare

An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex. Interspersed with Reflections upon Love and Taste. Written for the Honour of the Fair Sex. By a Lady.

London: printed for C. Hitch in Paternoster-Row, and R. Akenhead, jun. at the Globe, opposite the Bridge-End Coffee-House, Newcastle, [ca. 1750].

Price: $3,500.00


About the item

Fifth edition. [6], 149, [1, ad] pp. 1 vols. 12mo. Rare. Contemporary calf. neatly rebacked, flyleaves removed, some light browning or spotting, mostly marginal, ink date 1759 at foot of title page, a few pen or pencil marks on title and in margins. ESTC T123106 (BL, NLS, Smith College); Wing A 4058.

Item #13363

First published in two editions in 1696, and reprinted in 1697, 1721, and the present edition, ca. 1750, with changing subtitles. Variously attributed to Mary Astell, Judith Drake and H. Wyatt.
The present edition includes an ad for The Universal Library, kept by Newcastle bookseller R. Akenhead, jun. (The date is conjectured from the R. Akenhead junior imprint, which surfaces briefly in two other works dated 1750).
A curious note on the verso of the dedication explains the lack of a subscriber's list. Apparently most of the “generous Encouragers” did not want to have their names included so “no List is printed lest Offence might be given.”
The author observes: “we are taught only our Mother-Tongue, or perhaps French, which is now very fashionable, and almost as familiar amongst Women of Quality, as Men; whereas the other Sex, by means of a more extensive Education to the Knowledge of the Roman and Greek Languages, have a vaster Field for their Imaginations to rove in, and their Capacities thereby enlarged.”

RARE.