[Rarebooks] fa: AN ENQUIRY INTO THE DUTIES OF THE FEMALE SEX - Thomas Gisborne - 1798

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 16. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/gtfqm2d

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Thomas Gisborne: An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex. London: Printed for T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies in the Strand, 1798. The third edition, corrected; 8vo (22 cm) in full period tree calf, gilt-lettered morocco spine label; viii + 448 pp. ESTC T32744.

As a member of the reform-minded Clapham Sect, the clergyman-poet Thomas Gisborne (1758-1846) fought alongside William Wilberforce and Hannah More for the abolition of slavery. His worldview was not as enlightened, however, when it came to women, here arguing for their subordination to a divinely ordained patriarchal hierarchy. With chapters on the peculiar Features by which the Character of the Female Mind is naturally discriminated from that of the other Sex; on [women's] Propensity to Imitation [in] Dress; on Female Education; on Theatrical Entertainments [and] Amusements in General; Considerations antecedent to Marriage; on the Duties of Matrimonial Life; Parental Duties; etc., etc. Gisborne's Enquiry was one of the most popular of the many tut-tutting responses to Mary Wollstonecraft's radical Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792).

Binding with bumping and wear to the corners and edges, front joint cracked and tender but holding; leaves with some toning to the edges, occasional light spotting, else quite clean and fresh.