Bibliograph

How to create the perfect wife, Britain's most ineligible bachelor and his enlightened quest to train the ideal mate, Wendy Moore

Type

Label

How to create the perfect wife, Britain's most ineligible bachelor and his enlightened quest to train the ideal mate, Wendy Moore

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-332) and index

resource.biographical

individual biography

Illustrations

facsimilesportraitsplatesillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

How to create the perfect wife

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

811598779

Responsibility statement

Wendy Moore

Sub title

Britain's most ineligible bachelor and his enlightened quest to train the ideal mate

Summary

"Thomas Day, an 18th-century British writer and radical, knew exactly the sort of woman he wanted to marry. Pure and virginal like an English country maid yet tough and hardy like a Spartan heroine, she would live with him in an isolated cottage, completely subservient to his whims. But after being rejected by a number of spirited young women, Day concluded that the perfect partner he envisioned simply did not exist in frivolous, fashion-obsessed Georgian society. Rather than conceding defeat and giving up his search for the woman of his dreams, however, Day set out to create her. So begins the extraordinary true story at the heart of [this] tale of one man's mission to groom his ideal mate. A few days after he turned twenty-one and inherited a large fortune, Day adopted two young orphans from the Foundling Hospital and, guided by the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the principles of the Enlightenment, attempted to teach them to be model wives.... [B]ut his peculiar experiment inevitably backfired--though not before he had taken his theories about marriage, education, and femininity to shocking extremes."--Jacket flaps

Table Of Contents

Margaret -- Laura -- Sophie -- Ann and Dorcas -- Sabrina and Lucretia -- Anna and Honora -- Elizabeth -- Sabrina -- Esther -- Virginia, Belinda and Mary -- Galatea -- Finding my foundling

Classification