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Henry James wrote of Lucy Aikin: "Clever, sagacious, shrewd...and an accomplished writer, one wonders why her vigorous intellectual temperament has not attracted independent notice." The most important long poem by a woman from the British Romantic era, Aikin's Epistles on Women (1810) is the first text in English to re-write the entire history of western culture, from the creation story of Genesis through the eighteenth-century, from a feminist perspective. Responding to Alexander Pope's misogynistic "Epistle to a Lady," Aikin argues that men's degradation of women has hindered the growth of civilization, and provides historical and literary evidence for her claim that "man cannot degrade woman without degrading himself."

In addition to Epistles on Women, this Broadview Edition also includes a wide selection of poetry, historical writing, fiction, memoir, and literary criticism by Aikin, as well as letters, contemporary reviews, and other feminist historiographies.

Comments:

"This excellent edition of Aikin's first poem, delineating beliefs to which she subscribed her whole life, firmly situates her work between Mary Wollstonecraft's 'equality feminism' and Anna Letitia Barbauld's essentialism. The edition is a must-have for courses in nineteenth-century literature as well as in feminism." -  Laura Mandell, Miami University of Ohio

"Lucy Aikin is becoming increasingly recognized as a key figure in religious Dissent and women's writing of the Romantic period, and the meticulous scholarship of Anne K. Mellor and Michelle Levy makes her work readily accessible for the first time. They provide a superb introduction to Aikin's broader context and biography; their full annotations and contemporary material will make this book a useful teaching resource. This is also, however, an important piece of research and recovery: a splendid edition that helps us to understand the scope of Aikin's achievements as poet, historian, biographer, children's author, and critic." - Felicity James, University of Leicester

Anne K. Mellor is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. Michelle Levy is Associate Professor of English at Simon Fraser University.

Academics please note that this is a title classified as having a restricted allocation of complimentary copies. While the availability of bound complimentary copies is restricted to desk copies only, electronic complimentary copies are readily available for those professors wishing to consider this title for possible course adoption. Should you choose to adopt the book after viewing an electronic copy we will be happy to provide a bound desk copy.

Table of Contents: [Back to Top]

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Lucy Aikin: A Brief Chronology

A Note on the Text

I. Poetry

1. Epistles on the Character and Condition of Women, in Various Ages and Nations. With Miscellaneous Poems (1810)
2. From Epistles on the Character and Condition of Women, in Various Ages and Nations. With Miscellaneous Poems (1810) [ONLINE]
3. From The Annual Register (1812) [ONLINE]
4. From Poetry for Children (1801) [ONLINE]
5. From Mary Ann Humble's Autograph Album
6. "Written in an Alcove at Allerton" [ONLINE]

II. Histories

1. From Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth (1818)
2. From Memoirs of the Court of King James the First (1822) [ONLINE]
3. From Memoirs of the Court of King Charles the First (1833) [ONLINE]

III. Fiction

1. From Lorimer: A Tale (1814)

IV. Family Memoirs

1. From Memoir of John Aikin, M.D. (1823)
2. From "Memoir of Anna Laetitia Barbauld" (1825)

V. Literary Criticism and Biography

1. Review of William Wordsworth, Poems in TwoVolumes (1807)
2. Review of Lord Byron's Hours of Idleness (1807)
3. Review of The Life of William Roscoe (July 1833) [ONLINE]
4. From The Life of Joseph Addison (1843) [ONLINE]
5. "Recollections of Joanna Baillie" (1864) [ONLINE]

VI. Essays

1. From "Words upon Words" (1864)

VII. Children's Literature

1. From Poetry for Children (1801)
2. From "On the Spirit of Aristocracy" (1864)
3. From Juvenile Correspondence (1811) [ONLINE]
4. From Mary Godolphin, Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable (1882) [ONLINE]

Appendix A: Selected Letters

Appendix B: Selected Reviews of Epistles on Women

Appendix C: Contexts for Epistles on Women

1. From Juvenal, Satires
2. From Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Germania
3. From John Milton, Paradise Lost (1750) [LONGER EXCERPT ONLINE]
4. From Alexander Pope, Epistles to Several Persons, "Epistle II: To a Lady on the Characters of Women"(1735) [LONGER EXCERPT ONLINE]
5. From Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) [LONGER EXCERPT ONLINE]
6. From Anna Laetitia Aikin Barbauld, "The Rights of Women" (1825)
7. From Richard Polwhele, The Unsex’d Females, A Poem (1798)

Appendix D: Contexts for Aikin's Feminist Historiography

1. From Catherine Macaulay, Observations on the Reflections of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke (1791)
2. From Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803)
3. From Elizabeth Benger, Memoirs of the Life of Anne Boleyn (1821)
4. From William Alexander, The History of Women, from the Earliest Antiquity, to the Present Time (1779)