Publisher's Synopsis
The forgotten heroines of Britain's very first feminist movement
Brilliant, earnest, quietly unconventional, the Bluestockings are the unsung pioneers of early British feminism. Their networks empowered women, while their salons stressing conversation and civility opposed the misogynous boozy male culture of the 18th century. Blending story, history and delicious anecdote, Susannah Gibson's book opens a sparkling window onto this extraordinary society of engaged, energetic and very witty women. -- Janet Todd, author of JANE AUSTEN AND SHELLEY IN THE GARDEN
In Britain in the 1750s, women had no power and no rights - all money and property belonged to their fathers or husbands. A brave group risked everything to think and live as they wished, despite the sneers of contemporaries who argued that books frazzled female brains and damaged their wombs.
Meet the Bluestockings:
ELIZABETH MONTAGU hosted a series of glittering salons in her London drawing room, where a circle of women and men discussed theatre, philosophy and the classics, competing to outdo each other in wit and brilliance. Discover how she took on Voltaire and won.
Whilst nursing twelve children and helping run her bullying husband's brewery, HESTER THRALE took key writers under her wing - Dr Johnson moved into her house for several years. Her vivid diaries offer a powerful chronicle of what happened when she finally decided to follow her heart.
Find out how poetess and former milkmaid ANN YEARSLEY fought back when her snobbish patron refused to hand over her earnings because she was working class and thus irresponsible . . .
Or how CATHERINE MACAULEY's eight volume history of England caused such a sensation that she became a leading light in the American Revolution - while her unorthodox love-life scandalised her contemporaries . . .
In this brilliant book, Susannah Gibson explores the lives and legacies of these and other figures who went on to inspire writers and thinkers from Mary Wollstonecraft to Virginia Woolf and lead the way for feminism.
Bluestockings: the unexpected and inspiring stories of the forgotten heroines of Britain's very first women's movement.
