Author: BOUDIER DE VILLEMERT (Pierre-Joseph):
Title: The Friend of Women: Translated from the French of Bourdier [sic] de Villemert. By Alexander Morrice.
Description: London: Printed by Knight and Company...for the Author: Sold by H. D. Symonds..., 1802. FIRST EDITION OF THIS TRANSLATION. 8vo, 210 x 135 mms. [iii] - vii [viii Contents], [5] - 164, recently rebound in quarter calf, morocco label, linen boards. A very good copy Boudier de Villemert (b. 1716) published L'Ami des Femmes in Paris in 1758, and it was first published in English in London in 1766. The work seems to have been as popular in America as it was in France, as most translations in the 18th century were published in America. Morrice's translation is different from the 18th century ones. The work consists of 13 short chapters on such matters as the rank of women in society and the studies suitable to women, where he observes, "To prohibit women from any kind of study, is to treat them as Mahomet did, who, in order to render them more voluptuous, judged it convenient to deny their having any soul." The Critical Review for 1802 noted that there were "remarks in this work...well worthy the perusal of every female." The reviewer particularly endorsed this view: "Why cannot the two things that men love the best, the graces and gold [of women], incline them to the sweetest of all contracts? We may affirm, that the luxury of women, alone, makes the men fearful of uniting themselves with them. They fear, with justice, an ostentation which becomes a kind of necessity; and, by always urging them to excesses beyond the fortune they bring a husband, threatens to absorb that of a husband."

Keywords: behaviour manners prose women


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