Product Overview
Mary Astells A Serious Proposal to the Ladies is one of the most important and neglected works advocating the establishment of womens academies. Its reception was so controversial that Astell responded with a lengthy sequel, also in this volume. The cause of great notoriety, Astells Proposal was imitated by Defoe in his An Academy for Women, parodied in the Tatler, satirized on the stage, plagiarized by Bishop Berkeley, and later mocked by Gilbert and Sullivan in Princess Ida.
