The Female Reader (1789)

Delmar: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1980. Hard Cover. Near Fine/No Jacket. 6x1x9. Edges lightly foxed, otherwise an excellent copy. 1980 Hard Cover. xxxiii, [1], [i]-xx, 394, [2] pp. 8vo. 1980 facsimile of the 1789 edition, with a new introduction by Moira Ferguson. An anthology of prose and verse "For the improvement of young women," by one of the thinkers foundational to feminism as we know it today. It includes selections from Voltaire, Shakespeare, Milton, Hume, Swift, etc., etc. This work preceded her groundbreaking work A Vindication of the Rights of Women, which argued that women were not naturally inferior to men. This was the culmination of a number of works, including The Female Reader, which focused on expressing the importance of education for women.