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The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Chicago Series
Apology for the Woman Writing and Other Works
During her lifetime, the gifted writer Marie le Jars de Gournay (1565-1645) was celebrated as one of the "seventy most famous women of all time" in Jean de la Forge's Circle of Learned Women (1663). The adopted daughter of Montaigne, as well as his editor, Gournay was a major literary force and a pioneering feminist voice during a tumultuous period in France.
This volume presents translations of four of Gournay's works that address feminist issues. Two of these appear here in English for the first time— The Promenade of Monsieur de Montaigne and The Apology for the Woman Writing. One of the first modern psychological novels, the best-selling Promenade was also the first to explore female sexual feeling. With the autobiographical Apology, Gournay defended every aspect of her life, from her moral conduct to her household management. The book also includes Gournay's last revisions (1641) of her two best-known feminist treatises, The Equality of Men and Women and The Ladies' Complaint. The editors provide a general overview of Gournay's career, as well as individual introductions and extensive annotations for each work.
This volume presents translations of four of Gournay's works that address feminist issues. Two of these appear here in English for the first time— The Promenade of Monsieur de Montaigne and The Apology for the Woman Writing. One of the first modern psychological novels, the best-selling Promenade was also the first to explore female sexual feeling. With the autobiographical Apology, Gournay defended every aspect of her life, from her moral conduct to her household management. The book also includes Gournay's last revisions (1641) of her two best-known feminist treatises, The Equality of Men and Women and The Ladies' Complaint. The editors provide a general overview of Gournay's career, as well as individual introductions and extensive annotations for each work.
176 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2002
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About the author
Marie le Jars de Gournay
30 books9 followersMarie de Gournay (6 October 1565, Paris - 13 July 1645) was a French writer, who wrote a novel and a number of other literary compositions, including two protofeminist works, The Equality of Men and Women (1622) and The Ladies' Grievance (Les femmes et Grief des dames, 1626).
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January 7, 2026«Здесь будет кстати помянуть тех старинных болтунов, которые дошли до столь кичливой глупости, что стали утверждать, будто бы женщина, в отличие от мужчины, не создана по образу Божию, считая, должно быть, признаком этого образа бороду. Следуя такой логике, надо бы отказать женщине и в образе человеческом, раз она не похожа на Того, по чьему образу создан человек»
«Когда же мужчины похваляются, что Иисус Христос родился принадлежащим к их полу, им следует ответить, что того требовала необходимость соблюдать приличие: будь Он женщиной, Он не мог бы таким молодым, не вызывая возмущения, в любое время дня и ночи являться толпам людей, обращать их к истине, помогать им и спасать человеческий род»
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«Когда же мужчины похваляются, что Иисус Христос родился принадлежащим к их полу, им следует ответить, что того требовала необходимость соблюдать приличие: будь Он женщиной, Он не мог бы таким молодым, не вызывая возмущения, в любое время дня и ночи являться толпам людей, обращать их к истине, помогать им и спасать человеческий род»
😭😭🫠
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January 3, 2021The Promenade of Monsieur de Montaigne:
Scene of Alinda lying to her second suitor -
"And I yield also to that humanity with which you indulged my weakness, which you could have compelled, when I fought against your desire out of strict observance of my moral teaching, which indeed I held in high esteem, however reduced you see me now."
to which he responds "overwhelmed with joy" immediately believing that she really is willing to be his wife.
thinking about the way a male perspective of the woman as someone "simple" allows the woman to play into this character of herself in order to "deceive" - it should be so obvious that she is not going to suddenly agree to being his wife, but the implausibility is plausible from the male perspective that assumes "women are just like that"
fire mic drop:
"—namely, that I will not have lost everything with my marriage, for from it I will gain a tomb."
"Most of the offenses against modesty that women commit today stem not from wantonness but from foolishness. And I less readily believe what I am told about the most sublime than about the least. If some woman should yield to Xenophon, in whom the physical and spiritual graces were combined together with honesty, that would be called a lapse in chastity. But to entrust oneself to the men of the present age, who do not come close to his qualities (as handsome and gallant as they may be) and who make it so plain that they get less pleasure from possessing women than from betraying them—that I call ineptitude."
"Use a bit of imagination and envisage in a female role the vigor of his soul, his frankness in
chastising common opinions where they injure truth, his aptness in conversing naturally on all matters, as well as in perceiving and considering them, his freedom in coming and going everywhere where someone’s need or indeed his duty summons him: you will find, in the end, that precisely the actions that make him Socrates would make him the most slandered woman in Athens."
HER DEATH:
"Shortly thereafter the henchmen arrived, and, when they had approached the bed in silence, one put his hands on her to stay her, and she cried out in her soul, “Ah, my friend, do not touch me except with your sword,” but the other thrust a sharp dagger into her neck, then gave a second blow in the body to finish her off. At all of this she let out neither cry nor yell—only a single pitiful groan at the painful drawing out of the dagger, which, by the violence of the blow, had penetrated into the mattress, soon bathed in the blood disgorged from those two wounds, which from there
spread even to the floor.
And so Alinda thereby consummated, in so few years as she had lived, all that the histories of many ages can report and pity in the way of misery."
"There, then, pale and trembling with despair, with the remorse of love, and with pity all together, he went and threw himself outstretched on the body through the blood and the press of people. At first he seemed in a trance, showing no sign of a man awake but a sort of dull and agonized groaning, which one would not have known whether to attribute more to rage, to affection, or to
pity. But when the little blood that still remained in her, flowing out under that intense pressure, came to spurt in his face, then he recoiled sharply: “Ah, innocent blood,” he said, “you may wash me but cannot efface the stain of my crime."
"But having two or three times wavered in this way, now furious, now in collapse, finally he hurled a cry, “Ah, thus I will rejoin you!” After which, having got up on his knees, he drew his dagger, and, looking askance at Ortalde, who was present there, he struck himself violently in the heart and with one blow sent his soul to join that of his lady. The body fell at Alinda’s side; the wounds,
joining, seemed lovingly to welcome each other, and this new blood, hot and steaming, seemed to wish to reanimate the other by its infusion."
Lady's Complaint:
Introduced as a "diatribe" by the editors - and this strikes me as unfair, if only because the frustration is so UNDERSTANDABLE.
More interesting to read than the more reasoned essay that precedes it. Ridicule - the subject of the essay, and also the consequence of it - sad.
Apology:
Made me sad. Here, the narration is so concerned with self-justification. Defensive. Setting itself up to fuel more ridicule, that's what I begin to imagine, especially after reading Complaint.
Interesting passages detailing how she didn't waste her money away, attempting to fight back against claims of frivolity.
Scene of Alinda lying to her second suitor -
"And I yield also to that humanity with which you indulged my weakness, which you could have compelled, when I fought against your desire out of strict observance of my moral teaching, which indeed I held in high esteem, however reduced you see me now."
to which he responds "overwhelmed with joy" immediately believing that she really is willing to be his wife.
thinking about the way a male perspective of the woman as someone "simple" allows the woman to play into this character of herself in order to "deceive" - it should be so obvious that she is not going to suddenly agree to being his wife, but the implausibility is plausible from the male perspective that assumes "women are just like that"
fire mic drop:
"—namely, that I will not have lost everything with my marriage, for from it I will gain a tomb."
"Most of the offenses against modesty that women commit today stem not from wantonness but from foolishness. And I less readily believe what I am told about the most sublime than about the least. If some woman should yield to Xenophon, in whom the physical and spiritual graces were combined together with honesty, that would be called a lapse in chastity. But to entrust oneself to the men of the present age, who do not come close to his qualities (as handsome and gallant as they may be) and who make it so plain that they get less pleasure from possessing women than from betraying them—that I call ineptitude."
"Use a bit of imagination and envisage in a female role the vigor of his soul, his frankness in
chastising common opinions where they injure truth, his aptness in conversing naturally on all matters, as well as in perceiving and considering them, his freedom in coming and going everywhere where someone’s need or indeed his duty summons him: you will find, in the end, that precisely the actions that make him Socrates would make him the most slandered woman in Athens."
HER DEATH:
"Shortly thereafter the henchmen arrived, and, when they had approached the bed in silence, one put his hands on her to stay her, and she cried out in her soul, “Ah, my friend, do not touch me except with your sword,” but the other thrust a sharp dagger into her neck, then gave a second blow in the body to finish her off. At all of this she let out neither cry nor yell—only a single pitiful groan at the painful drawing out of the dagger, which, by the violence of the blow, had penetrated into the mattress, soon bathed in the blood disgorged from those two wounds, which from there
spread even to the floor.
And so Alinda thereby consummated, in so few years as she had lived, all that the histories of many ages can report and pity in the way of misery."
"There, then, pale and trembling with despair, with the remorse of love, and with pity all together, he went and threw himself outstretched on the body through the blood and the press of people. At first he seemed in a trance, showing no sign of a man awake but a sort of dull and agonized groaning, which one would not have known whether to attribute more to rage, to affection, or to
pity. But when the little blood that still remained in her, flowing out under that intense pressure, came to spurt in his face, then he recoiled sharply: “Ah, innocent blood,” he said, “you may wash me but cannot efface the stain of my crime."
"But having two or three times wavered in this way, now furious, now in collapse, finally he hurled a cry, “Ah, thus I will rejoin you!” After which, having got up on his knees, he drew his dagger, and, looking askance at Ortalde, who was present there, he struck himself violently in the heart and with one blow sent his soul to join that of his lady. The body fell at Alinda’s side; the wounds,
joining, seemed lovingly to welcome each other, and this new blood, hot and steaming, seemed to wish to reanimate the other by its infusion."
Lady's Complaint:
Introduced as a "diatribe" by the editors - and this strikes me as unfair, if only because the frustration is so UNDERSTANDABLE.
More interesting to read than the more reasoned essay that precedes it. Ridicule - the subject of the essay, and also the consequence of it - sad.
Apology:
Made me sad. Here, the narration is so concerned with self-justification. Defensive. Setting itself up to fuel more ridicule, that's what I begin to imagine, especially after reading Complaint.
Interesting passages detailing how she didn't waste her money away, attempting to fight back against claims of frivolity.
November 30, 2023
Go off girl
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April 15, 20221641
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews