Full Description
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.
Contents
Please note that additional selections and appendix materialsfor this edition are available on an auxiliary website, locatedat www.sfu.ca/‾mnl/aikin/epistlesonline.pdf/.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Lucy Aikin: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
Epistles on Women and Other Works
Poetry
Epistles on the Character and Condition of Women, in Various Ages and Nations.With Miscellaneous Poems (1810)
Introduction
Epistle I
Epistle II
Epistle III
Epistle IV
From Epistles on the Character and Condition of Women, in Various Ages and Nations.With Miscellaneous Poems (1810) [ONLINE]
"Cambria, an Ode"
"Dirge for the Late James Currie, M.D., of Liverpool"
"Futurity"
"Sonnet to Fortune. From Metastasio"
"To Mr. Montgomery. Occasioned by an Illiberal Attack on his Poems"
"The Swiss Emigrant"
"Midnight Thoughts"
"To the Memory of the Late Rev. Gilbert Wakefield"
"On Seeing the Sun Shine in at my Window for the First Time in the Year"
"On Seeing Blenheim Castle"
"Ode to Ludlow Castle"
"Necessity"
From The Annual Register (1812) [ONLINE]
"The Balloon"
From Poetry for Children (1801) [ONLINE]
"The Beggar Man"
"Prince Leeboo"
From Mary Ann Humble's Autograph Album
"Written in an Alcove at Allerton" [ONLINE]
Histories
From Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth (1818)
From Memoirs of the Court of King James the First (1822) [ONLINE]
From Memoirs of the Court of King Charles the First (1833) [ONLINE]
Fiction
From Lorimer:A Tale (1814)
Family Memoirs
From Memoir of John Aikin, M.D. (1823)
From "Memoir of Anna Lætitia Barbauld" (1825)
Literary Criticism and Biography
Review of William Wordsworth, Poems in Two Volumes (1807)
Review of Lord Byron's Hours of Idleness (1807)
Review of The Life of William Roscoe (July 1833) [ONLINE]
From The Life of Joseph Addison (1843) [ONLINE]
"Recollections of Joanna Baillie" (1864) [ONLINE]
Essays
From "Words upon Words" (1864)
Children's Literature
From Poetry for Children (1801)
From "On the Spirit of Aristocracy" (1864)
From Juvenile Correspondence (1811) [ONLINE]
From Mary Godolphin, Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable (1882) [ONLINE]
Appendix A: Selected Letters
To Mrs.Taylor (July 1806)
To Mrs.Taylor (August 1816)
To Anna [Letitia] (Aikin) Le Breton (5 July 1824)
To Rev. Dr. Channing (28 May 1828)
To Anna [Letitia] (Aikin) Le Breton (12 August 1830)
To Rev. Dr. Channing (28 June 1831)
To Rev. Dr. Channing (6 September 1831)
To Rev. Dr. Channing (7 April 1832)
To Rev. Dr. Channing (15 October 1832)
To Rev. Dr. Channing (14 October 1837)
To Rev. Dr. Channing (18 April 1838)
Appendix B: Selected Reviews of Epistles on Women
European Magazine (July 1811)
Monthly Review (April 1811)
Belfast Monthly Magazine (August 1810)
Poetical Register (1810-11)
Critical Review (August 1811)
Eclectic Review (November 1810)
Henry James, "Review of Correspondence of William Ellery Channing and Lucy Aikin 1826-1842," Atlantic Monthly (March 1875)
Appendix C: Contexts for Epistles on Women
From Juvenal, Satires
From Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Germania
From John Milton, Paradise Lost (1750) [LONGER EXCERPT ONLINE]
From Alexander Pope, Epistles to Several Persons, "Epistle II:To a Lady on the Characters of Women" (1735) [LONGER EXCERPT ONLINE]
From Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) [LONGER EXCERPT ONLINE]
From Anna Lætitia Aikin Barbauld, "The Rights of Women" (1825)
From Richard Polwhele, The Unsex'd Females, A Poem (1798)
Appendix D: Contexts for Aikin's Feminist Historiography
From Catherine Macaulay, Observations on the Reflections of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke (1791)
From Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries(1803)
From Elizabeth Benger, Memoirs of the Life of Anne Boleyn (1821)
From William Alexander, The History of Women, from the Earliest Antiquity, to the Present Time (1779)
Selected Bibliography
