I would just like to recommend this book to all of you, as I finished it a couple of days ago, and I am having to study it for an exam, and based on the book itself and what I am reading about the author, Mary Hays, it is really worth the read.

This book was published in 1796, and is largely auto-biographical, containing excerpts from real letters written by Mary Hays to William Godwin (on whom the character Mr Frances is based) and William Frend (on whom the character Augustus Harley is based). 

Mary Hays was a friend of Mary Wollstonecraft, but I have come to the conclusion that she is more awesome and feminist-like than Wollstonecraft. The novel was criticised for how openly it deals with female passion and desire, and the fact that the narrator, Emma Courtney, quite relentlessly pursues August Harley, which was obviously not seen as remotely respectable at the time. Critics at the time were aware that this was based on Hays’ life, and that she had also apparently been involved with other men, but remained unmarried. I can’t find the quote in the chapter I just read, but the implication was that she was quite forward with men. 

Apart from all that she very clearly argues for giving women the same education as men, and also for getting rid of useless societal rules which said that one thing had to be expected of men, while an other had to be expected of women, when the existing differences between them had been fostered by society in the first place. At one point in the novel a character does something which is clearly wrong, but this is out of fear of society’s reaction towards something which was seen as wrong at the time- a pregnancy outside of marriage- and Hays actually comments that this was the kind of misfortune that can come from forcing people to abide by ‘morals’ which don’t necessarily serve any positive purpose. That was the gist of it anyway. I felt like this was all really impressive and brave, coming from someone writing in the 18th Century. 

Yes!! Rossetti is my favorite painter and one of the things I love in his works the most is how he paint women’s faces. They all have very strong facial features like noses, chins, eyebrows and cheeks and it makes them look so powerful and proud and so beautiful! It’s actually uplifting for me, as I hate to compare myself to pretty delicate faces because it makes me feel uglier and worse, but then I think: how would Rossetti present my face on his paintings? He would exaggerate the characteristics which are ugly for me and create a strong, beautiful woman on canvas. And it makes me feel more confident. With all my heart I love this unique beauty 🌹

Jules Joseph Lefebvre

French, 1836 - 1911

Until, of course, they showed it to a traditional leatherworker and she took one look at it and said “Oh yeah sure that’s a leather burnisher, you use it to close the pores of leather and work oil into the hide to make it waterproof. Mine looks just the same.” 

“Wait you’re still using the exact same fucking thing 50,000 years later???”

“Well, yeah. We’ve tried other things. Metal scratches up and damages the hide. Wood splinters and wears out. Bone lasts forever and gives the best polish. There are new, cheaper plastic ones, but they crack and break after a couple years. A bone polisher is nearly indestructible, and only gets better with age. The more you use a bone polisher the better it works.”

It’s just. 

The Judgement of Paris ; Let Ambition fire Thy Mind 🎶

Composed by William Congreve & John Eccles, 1700

Crowns I’ll throw beneath thy feet

Thou on necks of kings shall tread

Joys in circles joys shall meet