Conduct Literature For Women III, 1720-1770 (Part III)

Continuing our successful series Conduct Literature for Women, we move into the eighteenth century. The emphasis shifts away from courtly etiquette to a more domestic focus, reflecting the growth of a new middle class in English society. The roles and responsibilities of the individual woman, and an entire class, are discussed and developed within these texts. This increasing concern with the practicalities of private life associates the conduct genre with another major literary development of the age, the realist novel. The new set is a vital resource for students of eighteenth-century culture, women's writing and history. The advice included takes the shape of sermons, poems and cookery books, as well as narratives such as The Polite Lady (1760) which is written as a series of letters between a mother and daughter. Contributions are by male and female authors in a broad variety of styles and genres, and the texts were often widely influential and the subject of public and literary debate. None of the texts are available in any other modern edition