In 1734 Swift wrote to Mary Granville: ‘A pernicious error prevails…that it is the duty of your sex to be fools’. As Mrs Delaney, she was to become one of a group of intelligent women who actively denied such a duty, and whose literary receptions drew in many of the finest minds of the day. This book traces the rise, development, and decline of the Bluestocking Circle, between 1740 and 1800, through a close analysis of the lives and works of the women who made up the group. Drawing substantially on previously unpublished information and quoting widely from the group's letters to each other, th ... More

In 1734 Swift wrote to Mary Granville: ‘A pernicious error prevails…that it is the duty of your sex to be fools’. As Mrs Delaney, she was to become one of a group of intelligent women who actively denied such a duty, and whose literary receptions drew in many of the finest minds of the day. This book traces the rise, development, and decline of the Bluestocking Circle, between 1740 and 1800, through a close analysis of the lives and works of the women who made up the group. Drawing substantially on previously unpublished information and quoting widely from the group's letters to each other, the author supplies much detail on the relationships, social lives, and writings of the Circle.