ABSTRACT

This translation of the French Femme au dix-huitiéme siécle from 1862, first published in English in 1928, traces the life of the Eighteenth Century woman in an historical account. Through discussion of evidence from paintings and memoirs, the book draws an intimate lifelike account of what lay behind these images for women in France of this time. The Goncourt brothers wrote several social histories but were also art critics and novelists. Here they offer portraits of upper, middle and working class women in France. This is one of the earliest accounts of life for women in this period.

chapter I|28 pages

Birth—The Convent—Marriage

chapter II|39 pages

Society—The Salons

chapter III|27 pages

The Pleasures of Society

chapter IV|44 pages

Love

chapter V|19 pages

Married Life

chapter VI|20 pages

The Woman of the Middle Classes

chapter VII|24 pages

The Woman of the People—The Fille Galante

chapter VIII|39 pages

Beauty and the Mode

chapter IX|24 pages

The Domination and Intelligence of Woman

chapter X|30 pages

The Soul of Woman

chapter XI|44 pages

Woman in Her Old Age

chapter XII|10 pages

The Philosophy and Death of Woman