with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects.
J. Johnson, 1792.
First edition. Original publisher's blue boards. Paper spine worn away revealing the stitching holding the boards. Boards a little worn and stained. Internally fresh, a very good, authentic copy.
The author's defining work and the first great feminist manifesto, the principle being that "if woman be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge, for truth must be common to all". Although written in a direct manner, the tone of the book is essentially temperate. It did not attack religion or marriage, rather supporting both institutions from the standpoint that women should have an equal understanding of them through equality of education. However, the very consideration of writing a book on the subject at all, was too radical for the time and caused a general outcry. The work did sow an idealistic seed that was nurtured throughout the nineteenth century by educated and radical women in all walks of life (noticeable in the works of Wollestonecraft's literary heirs, Austen and Eliot) and ultimately culminating in 1918 with the government bill allowing women to vote.
PMM 242
Stock ID: 28167
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