BLUESTOCKINGS: A History of the First Women's Movement

In elegant prose, here is an illuminating group portrait of the 18th century women who dared to imagine an active life for themselves. England in the 1700s was a time when a woman who was an intellectual if she spoke out or wrote professionally was considered unnatural. After all, a clever woman, if there were such a thing, would never make a good wife. But a circle of women called the Bluestockings did something extraordinary. They came together in glittering salons to discuss and debate as intellectual equals with men, they fought for women to be educated and to have a public role in society. Elizabeth Montagu established one of the most famous salons and, from her elegant drawing room, a circle of women and men discussed theatre, philosophy and the classics, competing to outdo each other in wit and brilliance, with everyone from royalty to revolutionaries clamouring for an invitation to attend. Her younger sister Sarah Scott imagined a female-run society and created a women's commune. Meanwhile Hester Thrale took on her bullying husband's brewery from bankruptcy while nursing 12 children, and after being widowed, married a man she loved - Italian, Catholic, and not of her social class. She also took key writers under her wing - Dr Johnson moved into her house for several years. Catherine Macauley was the author of an eight-volume History of England, and Frances Burney author of the audacious novel Evelina. Everyone in 18th century England knew the story of Clarissa Harlowe - she was the heroine of a novel which first appeared in 1748, penned by the famous writer and printer Samuel Richardson. Clarissa was his idea of a virtuous and perfect woman, but many readers, then and now, were struck by the kidnappings, imprisonments, sexual assaults, insanity, duels and death in the novel. To female readers it was clear that Clarissa's refusal to marry Mr Solmes was the most significant plot point in the novel. And former milkmaid Ann Yearsley fought back when her snobbish patron refused to hand over her earnings from her poetry. And we even learn how Elizabeth Montagu took on Voltaire and won! Brilliant and quietly unconventional, read about the unsung pioneers of early British feminism in this blend of history and delicious anecdote. Eight pages of photos. 338pages. Remainder mark.