Selected Writings of Hannah More

Résumé du livre

Hannah More (1745-1833) was a precociously intelligent child. Educated first by her father at home, then in a predominantly female environment, she was a born proselytist who set about reforming the behaviour of women in poverty-striken and fashionable societies alike. If her arguments appear confrontational to late twentieth-century readers, there is no disputing their popularity in her own day. Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education with a view of the Principles and Conduct prevalent among Women of Rank and Fortune was published in 1799 and sold over 19,000 copies; by 1826 it had run into thirteen editions. The work presents a lively critique of the way fashionable women of society wasted their time and talents, attacking the ideas of the French Enlightenment and German romanticism and the representation of women in the novels and plays which these inspired; it argues that women have an important role to play in reforming the morals and manners of society.