... "WE have only admiration to bestow upon this most intricate and masterly analysis of the great feminine Revolution or Renaissance of the sixteenth century. It is the story of the struggles of the woman's soul under the golden robe to emerge into the sunshine of a more spiritual realisation of the rite which, at its worst, still meant the best lot earth held for her. There are chapters which we find ourselves wishing that everybody might read, the admirable essay, for instance, on 'The Embroidery of Life,' and that other chapter discussing the influence of Platonism on conversation, especially the passages touching on the indiscriminate reading of the ladies who made it their business to refine the taste of men. It is a book to be much pressed upon every young woman who thinks she knows life, but perhaps to be kept back from the one who modestly confesses she would rather not know."-The Spectator. "These studies of the woman of the sixteenth century, in all her social relations and in all her activities, are illustrated with an unceasing flow of anecdote and citation, never more apt than when employed to characterise that remarkable group who were imbued with the so-called 'idées platoniciennes.' The book will attract a wide circle of readers." -Athenæum. "A fascinating volume. In these days of new women, the Renaissance women preach from the grave. Behind the bars of marriage they played handsomely at the game of life. Their colouring was not all rouge, nor their laughter but the tinkling of cymbals. They had grace, and gave grace; they were royally sentimental; they were women of the cult of youth."-Academy. "Everything is so brightly, so captivatingly important in this volume; the search into the past has been so well rewarded, the conclusions are so shrewd and clever, the subject is so limitless, yet curiously limited, that as history or psychology it should gain a large public."-Bookman. "The translator has done his work well, and has rendered good service in bringing before English readers a notable work, which is by no means without its bearing upon the problems suggested by the somewhat assertive 'feminism' of our own day."—World. "The importance of M. de Maulde's book to the literature of feminism is difficult to exaggerate. It is not only an exhaustive study of the life, occupation, aims, and character of the woman of the sixteenth century, but it is also a fascinating portrait of the eternal feminine, written with an extraordinary sympathy, a sensibility and an innate comprehension of women's strength and weakness, of their ideals and their impracticability.” -Daily Telegraph. "A singularly close and scholarly picture of the position of women in an age of subjection, as well as in a subsequent epoch under less fettered and healthier conditions."-Standard. "The fascination of the book is such as baffles complete analysis, just as its style, its play of delicate irony, its almost indefinable grace and piquancy must needs cloud the skill of the translator. It presents one of the happiest conjunctions of artist and scholar. Many-sided and penetrative, this historical study is equally notable for its exquisite lightness of touch and its brilliancy of execution."-St. James's Gazette. "A thoroughly noteworthy work, written by one who is a master of his subject. It is difficult in modern literature to find anything with which to compare it."-Notes and Queries. |