One of the foremost authors of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Maria Edgeworth (1768 1849) made the project of women's education the pillar of her career. Letters for Literary Ladies (1795), her first published work, takes up this question in earnest, offering a staunch defence of women's intellectual training and an impassioned warning against its neglect. The first two letters likely draw from an exchange between Richard Edgeworth, Maria's father, and his friend Thomas Day, presenting arguments for and against educating young women in the sciences and philosophy. The...

Published at a pivotal moment in the economic development of Britain, Conversations on Political Economy (1816) influenced a generation of economists, politicians and intellectuals. Employing her trademark format of dialogues between Mrs. Bryan and her pupil Caroline, Marcet introduces readers to theories surrounding property, population, and the 'condition of the poor'. Despite a target audience of young women, there is little evidence of feminine sentimentality, nor does the author's commitment to female education prevent her from propounding challenging, often controversial arguments; an...

When Elizabeth Rigby (1809 1893) embarked on her travels to the Baltic states in 1838, she was already a published author. She was to play a significant role as a writer and public figure throughout the nineteenth century. Originally published in 1841 as two separate volumes, this book is a compilation of letters written to her mother during her journey to Estonia. Travelling alone was an unusual undertaking for a single woman at the time, and here she demonstrates her ability to provide detailed descriptions of the life and places she experiences. The first volume describes her journey to...

A valuable work for colonial and women's writing, covering both life in the society and observations of nature.

A valuable work for colonial and women's writing, covering both life in the society and observations of nature.

First published in 1852, this is a three-volume biography of Marie de Medicis, Queen and subsequently Regent of France.

First published in 1852, this is a three-volume biography of Marie de Medicis, Queen and subsequently Regent of France.

First published in 1852, this is a three-volume biography of Marie de Medicis, Queen and subsequently Regent of France.

Dinah Craik (1826 1887) was a prolific writer of fiction, poetry and essays. She was best known for her novels, which appropriated well-worked narratives of individuals triumphing over adversity through hard work and moral integrity against a backdrop of industrialisation and the ascent of the middle classes. The most successful, John Halifax, Gentleman, tells the tale of a boy who works his way out of poverty. Craik herself was familiar with hardship: her father Thomas Mulock, a nonconformist minister, had spent periods confined to a lunatic asylum, and abandoned his children after his...

Most people are familiar with the name of Florence Nightingale and the image of 'the lady with the lamp'. Initially celebrated for her efforts during the Crimean War, Nightingale is best known as a reformer of army medical services and of nursing more generally. She wrote Notes on Nursing - first published in 1859, but reprinted here in its revised and enlarged 1860 edition - in order to share her knowledge with women who were nursing their families at home. It was also required reading at the nursing school she opened at St Thomas' Hospital, the first of its kind, and at other such...