During her lifetime, the gifted writer Marie le Jars de Gournay (1565-1645) was celebrated as one of the "seventy most famous women of all time" in Jean de la Forge's "Circle of Learned Women" (1663). The adopted daughter of Montaigne, as well as his editor, Gournay was a major literary force and a pioneering feminist voice during a tumultuous period in France.
This volume presents translations of four of Gournay's works that address feminist issues. Two of these appear here in English for the first time "The Promenade of Monsieur de Montaigne" and "The Apology for the Woman Writing." One...