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The Enlightenment of Age - Women, Letters and Growing Old in Eighteenth-century France (Paperback)
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The Enlightenment of Age - Women, Letters and Growing Old in Eighteenth-century France (Paperback)
Series: Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 2010:09
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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'Women seem to be destined solely for our pleasure. When they no
longer have that attraction, they have lost everything' (letter
from Diderot to Sophie Volland, 1762). How typical was this view of
the 'older woman' in the eighteenth century? What was it like for
women of intelligence and sensibility to grow old in such a
culture? By studying the correspondences of four prominent women
(Francoise de Graffigny, Marie Du Deffand, Marie Riccoboni and
Isabelle de Charriere) during their middle and late years, Stewart
explores the relation of female aging to respectability, sexuality
and power. The author's focus lies in the physical, emotional and
professional well-being of middle-aged and elderly women during a
time when all the available dignity of age seemed to belong to men.
The 'repulsiveness' of growing old was patently a female issue. One
of the most emblematic aspects of these correspondences is the
often unrequited love of older women for younger men during a
period when the common wisdom denied women the right to any
feelings except piety. Stewart juxtaposes their letters with
representations of aging women in the period's fictional and
medical literature. She takes up several canonical, mostly
male-authored, texts that purvey this common wisdom, and re-reads
them with originality and grace. Through The Enlightenment of age -
at once learned, highly personal and entertaining - Stewart speaks
to us about the secret lives of older women, and about the ethos of
an era.
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