The English Gentlewoman.

UK,Qrto HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,clean,glossy laminated,colour pictorial illustrated dw/dj; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean,contents bright,tight and near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - an unread copy? Sharp-cornered,clean,publisher's original tan cloth boards with bright, crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and clean tan eps. UK, Qrto HB+dw/dj,1st edn,7-222pp [paginated] includes prologue,5 chapters,epilogue,profuse contemporary b/w+colour illustrations & photographs throughout the text and the book,an index,plus [unpaginated] b/w vignette illustrated half-title+title pages,b/w frntis and contents list/table. The life of the English gentlewoman runs like a delicate thread through English social history.For much of her existence she had almost no legal rights and she rarely controlled any independent resources.Yet she has left her imprint on stately homes and manor houses up and down the country and her occupations,her tastes and accomplishments provide a charming and original perspective on our past.Tracing the career of the English gentlewoman from the early Tudor period to the present day - from the paragons of classical learning who dazzled the Court in the 16th century to the impoverished heroines of Barbara Pym's novels whose happiness depends on entrapping the curates of North Kensington.In each period she looks at the domestic life and duties of the gentlewoman; her education (or lack of it); her tastes,fashions and pastimes,and her genuine achievements in such fields as needlework,water-colouring,music,writing and gardening.In each century,too,Flora Fraser highlights the few gentlewomen,such as Lady Margaret Beaufort,Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Florence Nightingale,who managed to rise above the constraints of their social position to achieve national recognition.Down the ages modesty and decorum remained the watchwords.We learn how gentlewomen of the 18thC took up landscape painting because it was considered more suitable than portraiture which - inevitably - involved an unladylike fixed stare.In the 19thC the innate modesty of the lady philanthropists led them to shelter behind all-male committees,no matter how feminine the charity.Even the alacrity with which women of the 20thC took to the typewriter can be explained as being an extension of the gentlewoman's traditional skills on keyboard musical instruments.Author's widely-researched and entertaining text is full of fresh insights into the byways of history.The accompanying illustrations are superbly reproduced and range from the ravishing portraits of Holbein and Gainsborough to 20thC cartoons. Please contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,because of the heavier weight of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!