The daughter of Louis XI, Anne of France (1461-1522) was one of the most powerful women of the fifteenth century. Referred to by her contemporaries as 'Madame la Grande', she controlled the government of France for eight years after the death of her father, guiding the kingdom through a series of crises. While ceding formal power to her brother Charles VIII in 1491, she remained an active and influential figure in France throughout her life. As the fifteenth century drew to a close, Anne composed a series of 'enseignements', or "lessons," for her daughter Suzanne of Bourbon. These instructions represent a distillation of her lifetime of reading and her own first-hand knowledge of the world; having managed to steer her own course successfully, she offered her daughter advice intended to help her negotiate the difficult passage of a woman in the world of politics Her lessons carefully prepare Suzanne to act both circumspectly and politically; in drawing her portrait of an ideal princess, Anne presents a guidebook on governance for Suzanne, one not altogether unlike Machiavelli's more famous book of advice for a would-be prince, written some fifteen years later. The lessons are here translated into English for the first time and accompanied by full introduction, commentary and notes.

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.

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 for to action on behalf of women. In her first published work, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (London 1694), Astell proposed the establishment of an educational institution for women aimed solely at fulfilling their needs, a place where women could withdraw from a harsh and threatening world controlled by men and organized to suit men's desires, irrespective of women's. Perhaps nowhere is her feminist position more clearly articulated than on the title page of this, her first publication: she addresses herself to women, her aim is "the advancement of their true and greatest interest," and she identifies herself as "a lover of her sex." But, despite its importance, no previously available edition of A Serious Proposal to the Ladies 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.