Throughout her life, in her personal relationships as well as in
her role as a public intellectual, the English thinker Mary Astell
(1666-1731) supported women, wrote to and for women, and, to the
greatest extent possible, moved from advocacy to action on their
behalf. In Some Reflections upon Marriage (London, 1700), Astell
focused her attention on the institution of marriage. For Astell,
marriage is a divinely ordained state, a "Christian institution,"
the only way to perpetuate humankind. But, she asks, "if marriage
be such a blessed state, how comes it . . . there are so few happy
marriages?" When her analysis is complete, there is not much to
recommend the institution, at least from a woman's perspective.
Marriage is necessary since it represents "the only honorable way
of continuing mankind." But, as Astell observes, the woman who
marries "ought to lay it down for an indisputable maxim that her
husband must govern absolutely and entirely and that she has
nothing else to do but to please and obey." Her radical conclusion?
If she cannot accept marriage "as it truly is," then a woman might
choose not to marry: perhaps, Astell suggests, "it is not good for
a woman to marry." Despite the importance of Some Reflections upon
Marriage, no previous edition has addressed the complications of
Astell's prose style, and none has added the kind of glossing and
notes that will assist student readers in their engagement with her
distinctive voice. This edition, designed for classroom use,
provides an ample introduction, a carefully modernized text,
helpful glosses and notes, and a useful bibliography with
references for further reading.
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