How to create the perfect wife / Wendy Moore.
Material type:
TextPublication details: London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, c2013Description: vii, 322 p., [8] p. of plates : ill., ports., facsims. ; 24 cmISBN: 9780297863786Subject(s): Day, Thomas, 1748-1789 | Sidney, Sabrina | Women -- History -- 18th century | Aristocracy (Social class) -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th centuryDDC classification: 941.07092 Summary: This is the story of how Thomas Day, a young man of means, decided he could never marry a woman with brains, spirit or fortune. Instead, he adopted two orphan girls from a Foundling Hospital, and set about educating them to become the meek, docile women he considered marriage material. Unsurprisingly, Day's marriage plans did not run smoothly. Having returned one orphan early on, his girl of choice, Sabrina Sidney, would also fall foul of the experiment. From then on, she led a difficult life, inhabiting a curious half-world an ex-orphan, and not quite a ward; a governess, and not quite a fiancee. But Sabrina also ended up figuring in the life of scientists and luminaries as disparate as Erasmus Darwin and Joseph Priestley, as well as that pioneering generation of women writers who included Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth and Anna Seward. In HOW TO CREATE THE PERFECT WIFE, Wendy has found a story that echoes her concerns about women's historic powerlessness, and captures a moment when ideas of human development and child-raising underwent radical change.Summary: Biographies and Autobiographies.Summary: History.Summary: Women.
| Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| wnor- Book | Northam Northam Adult Nonfiction | 941.07 MOO (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 31111052706718 |
"Georgian Britain's most ineligible bachelor and his quest to cultivate the ideal woman"--Cover.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
This is the story of how Thomas Day, a young man of means, decided he could never marry a woman with brains, spirit or fortune. Instead, he adopted two orphan girls from a Foundling Hospital, and set about educating them to become the meek, docile women he considered marriage material. Unsurprisingly, Day's marriage plans did not run smoothly. Having returned one orphan early on, his girl of choice, Sabrina Sidney, would also fall foul of the experiment. From then on, she led a difficult life, inhabiting a curious half-world an ex-orphan, and not quite a ward; a governess, and not quite a fiancee. But Sabrina also ended up figuring in the life of scientists and luminaries as disparate as Erasmus Darwin and Joseph Priestley, as well as that pioneering generation of women writers who included Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth and Anna Seward. In HOW TO CREATE THE PERFECT WIFE, Wendy has found a story that echoes her concerns about women's historic powerlessness, and captures a moment when ideas of human development and child-raising underwent radical change.
Biographies and Autobiographies.
History.
Women.
There are no comments on this title.