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Start giftingConduct Books and the History of the Ideal Woman
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreAs long as people have been writing books, authors have been using them to create misrepresentations of women. From medieval reality show-style wife tests to twenty-first century dating guides based on two-hundred-year-old novels, Conduct Books and the History of the Ideal Woman takes readers on a guided tour of advice on what women should and should not do.
Think today’s media is bad? In this book, you’ll discover:
A sixteenth-century writer who believed women had the power to transform men’s bad thoughts into good ones (if she didn’t and something bad happened, it was her fault—sound familiar?)
Why clothes were invented, and that pretty dresses are evil
Why young ladies should never read—gasp!—novels
The difference between conduct manuals and etiquette books, and why good manners are basically the same as good morals
What twentieth-century self-help books have in common with the Middle Ages
Meticulously researched and displaying wry wit (and occasionally exasperation), Conduct Books and the History of the Ideal Woman links seven hundred years of advice on women’s behavior, tracing a through-line from the earliest printed texts that argued women were the property of men, to various iterations of feminism, to today’s casual misogyny. A must-read for everyone who is or knows a woman!
Dr. Tabitha Kenlon researches representations of women in fiction, drama, and advice literature. She has published articles on gender performance in plays by William Shakespeare and Hannah Cowley, and on the links between Gothic novels and conduct manuals. She is host of the podcast Misconduct: 700 Years of Telling Women What to Do.
Tabitha Kenlon has a PhD in English. Her research concentrates on representations of women and the manipulation of genre in fiction, nonfiction and drama, with a focus on eighteenth-century Britain.
Kate Reading is the recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and has been named by AudioFile magazine as a “Voice of the Century,” as well as the Best Voice in Science Fiction & Fantasy in 2008 and 2009 and Best Voice in Biography & Culture in 2010. She has narrated works by such authors as Jane Austen, Robert Jordan, Edith Wharton, and Sophie Kinsella. Reading has performed at numerous theaters in Washington D.C. and received a Helen Hayes Award for her performance in Aunt Dan and Lemon. AudioFile magazine reports that, "With subtle control of characters and sense of pacing, Kate’s performances are a consistent pleasure."
Reviews
“Witty and well-written…[A] thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking read and a must for any student or scholar exploring gender history.“
“Ever wondered why listening to Fordyce’s Sermons in Pride and Prejudice made Lydia Bennet gape? In this lively and accessible look at conduct literature, Tabitha Kenlon ranges from fourteenth-century courtesy books to twenty-first-century rules. She shows how the ideal woman was constructed in the past, and questions her existence both then and now.”
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