Women's Wild Oats: Essays on the Re-fixing of Moral Standards

Catherine Gasquoine HartleyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
269K words
Chapters
27

Tags

English Originals EthicsSocial Sciences Social ChangeMarriage ViewsEthical ControversyGender IssuesSocial CritiqueModern ThoughtRevaluation of MoralsIntellectual CommentaryFemale PerspectiveFemale Awakening

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Women's Wild Oats: Essays on the Re-fixing of Moral Standards by HartleyAuthor: Hartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine), 1867-1928,Language: English, Class: HQ: Social sciences: The family, Marriage, Sex and Gender, Release Date: Jan 4, 2007

Editor's review

This essay collection, written by Catherine Gasquoine Hartley in the early twentieth century, revolves around "the re-fixing of moral standards" and discusses the norms and expectations women faced during a period of social transition. In an argumentative prose style, the author grounds abstract ethical questions in concrete situations; the writing carries a distinct polemical flavor of its time and preserves the vivid tone of an intellectual woman of that era thinking about public issues. Its value lies not in offering conclusions but in presenting a historical scene: how people restated right and wrong, and freedom, when the old moral framework came under question. The book's treatment of marriage, gender roles, and social judgment is instructive for today's readers seeking to understand the lineage of early feminist argument. It is best read with a sense of historical distance, as a document of intellectual history rather than a contemporary action guide. Suitable for readers interested in gender history and the history of social thought, for quiet close reading, and also as material for seminars or reading groups to observe how moral discourse is renegotiated as social conditions change.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and the opening of each essay first to grasp the author's central thread on moral standards, then read each piece closely.
  2. Keep a pen at hand to note the era's assumptions as they appear, then review them together afterward and draw contemporary comparisons.
  3. Read alongside selected women's writings from the same period to help situate the author's viewpoint.
  4. Make brief notes on unfamiliar historical background as you go rather than pausing too long, so as to preserve the coherence of the overall argument.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a work of argument? It is a collection of essays—argumentative prose—discussing moral standards and social norms; it is not a work of fiction. Readers should follow the author's line of reasoning rather than expect characters and plot.
Can I understand it without relevant historical background? Yes, but it takes some patience. The issues discussed, such as marriage and gender roles, are embedded in a distinct historical context. It is advisable to look up key background as you read and to understand unfamiliar ideas first by placing them back in their historical setting.
What should I keep in mind when reading the electronic edition? Public-domain ebooks usually preserve the original typesetting and wording, so old-style spellings or long paragraphs may appear. A reader with adjustable font size and annotation features is recommended, to make it easier to mark arguments and revisit key points.

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About the author

Catherine Gasquoine Hartley Author · British · 1867–1928

Catherine Gasquoine Hartley (1867–1928) was a British writer and art historian, born in Madagascar to a British missionary family; she also served as headmistress of a girls' school. Her writing career falls into two phases. Early on she focused on Spanish art and travel, producing works such as The Story of Seville and Things Seen in Spain. Later she turned to issues of gender, exploring women's historical situation, moral norms and relations between the sexes in The Truth About Woman, The Position of Woman in Primitive Society: A Study of the Matriarchy, Women's Wild Oats: Essays on the Re-fixing of Moral Standards, and Motherhood and the Relationships of the Sexes. Her work combines the care of an art historian with a concern for social reform. She died in a car accident in 1928. Public information is limited, and details of her life remain largely unknown; existing accounts rest mainly on the subjects and development of the works listed above.