| The Book of the City of Ladies Revised Edition Contributor(s): de Pizan, Christine (Author), Brown-Grant, Rosalind (Translator), Brown-Grant, Rosalind (Introduction by) |
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ISBN: 0140446893 ISBN-13: 9780140446890 Publisher: Penguin Group OUR PRICE: $13.50 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2000 Annotation: In The Book of the City of Ladies France's first professional woman of letters confronted head-on the misogyny of fourteenth-century Europe. Here, with the help of Reason, Rectitude, and Justice, Christine de Pizan constructs an allegoricaL city in which to defend womankind, using examples of female virtue and achievement both from the past and her own clay as the stones with which to build the city's walls and towers. This key text in the history of feminism not only provides powerful positive images of women -- ranging from warriors, inventors, and scholars to prophetesses, artists, and saints -- but also offers fascinating insight into the debates and controversies about the position of women in medieval culture, which viewed female nature as wholly given up to vice. This Penguin Classics edition also includes a superb Introduction that sets the work within its historical and intellectuaL context, annotations, a Glossary, and a Bibliography. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Women Authors - Literary Criticism | European - French |
| Dewey: 843.2 |
| LCCN: 00267752 |
| Series: Penguin Classics |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 5" W x 7.7" (0.55 lbs) 336 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - Medieval (500-1453) - Sex & Gender - Feminine |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A fascinating insight into the debates and controversies about the position of women in medieval culture, written by France's first professional woman of letters The pioneering Book of the City of Ladies begins when, feeling frustrated and miserable after reading a male writer's tirade against women, Christine de Pizan has a dreamlike vision where three virtues--Reason, Rectitude and Justice--appear to correct this view. They instruct her to build an allegorical city in which womankind can be defended against slander, its walls and towers constructed from examples of female achievement both from her own day and the past: ranging from warriors, inventors and scholars to prophetesses, artists and saints. Christine de Pizan's spirited defence of her sex was unique for its direct confrontation of the misogyny of her day, and offers a telling insight into the position of women in medieval culture. The Book of the City of Ladies provides positive images of women, ranging from warriors and inventors, scholars to prophetesses, and artists to saints. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. |