Cartas Sobre la Educacion del Bello Sexo por una Señora Americana
Veracruz; Puebla: [ca. 1870?]. [4],202pp. Original printed boards with brown cloth spine. Edges rubbed, minor soiling. Bookplate on front pastedown; ink stamp and pencil ownership inscription on title page. Internally clean. Very good. Item #6413
Originally published in 1824 by Ackermann in London, this was one of several texts produced for export to the Spanish-speaking American market. Meant for the education of the fairer sex, this work was more specifically targeted at the young women of Buenos Aires. Written under the fiction of a female "author," the book compares the education of women in America with that in Europe. The author criticizes the French model, centered on the art of pleasing, and favors the English one, based on moral instruction. The work contains twelve letters, addressing different aspects of women’s education: moral, intellectual, domestic, physical, and religious, within a traditional framework that emphasizes domesticity, household care, and obedience. There were several subsequent editions including Mexico in 1851, Havana in 1863, and the present edition. All are quite scarce. We locate this edition in a single copy, at Syracuse University.
Price: $1,250.00