Les gynographes, ou Idées de deux honnêtes-femmes sur un projet de reglement proposé à toute l'Europe: pour mettre les femmes à leur place, & opérer le bonheur des deux sexes....

The Hague [but Paris]: Gosse et Pinet; Humblot, 1777. First edition. Fine. 2 volumes, octavo (22); viii, 238; [239-] 567, [1] pages. Unbound, untrimmed, unmarked, and completely unsophisticated copy in original publisher's marbled paper wraps. Pages not bright. Some dampstains and occasional spots. References: Courbin, "Rétif et son oeuvre," #14595; Rives Childs, XVI, p. 245; Jacob, XVII, p. 143.

The collected works of Restif de la Bretonne would probably fill an entire wall case. He wrote tirelessly, producing some 250 books--a considerable physical task, if not the intellectual achievement of some of his contemporaries in the French siècle des Lumières. Restif was a libertine, and he wrote quite a lot about sex. He also bravely ignored standard literary forms, forging his own way into autobiography, polemic, essay, pornography, and fiction, leaving trails that are yet to be explored. The volumes offered here, in their completely original, unsophisticated state, form a part of an ambitious series of books that appeared over two decades under the umbrella title "Idées singulières" (Modest Proposals), an extensive compendium of rules and regulations for the creation of a utopia. Each title in the series proposes a reform project for a particular aspect of society. In the case of Les gynographes, that aspect is the status of women in society. While not entirely a 21st-century feminist (disappointingly he is unable to exceed received patriarchal attitudes), Restif makes some presciently modern arguments, including that gender inequality is a social construct and is not biologically determined, and that education is the key to gender equality. Indeed the text betrays a disconcerting mix of statements that can be interpreted as misogynistic alongside truly revolutionary ideas about the condition of women in society. Even the 19th-century bibliographer, P.L. Jacob, notes that "some very singular and very original ideas" occur juxtaposed against "severe and unjust comments" about women.