Conduct Books for Girls in Enlightenment FranceConduct Books for Girls in Enlightenment F

pp. 46-7 (ref:10.27-31) cited in [*Sentimental Savants*](https://isidore.co/calibre/#panel=book_details&book_id=8311) ref:13.383 fn. 69 re: "‘scientific’ methods to provide sexual education and thereby guard sexual virtue" * * * During the eighteenth-century, at a time when secular and religious authors in France were questioning women's efforts to read, a new literary genre emerged: conduct books written specifically for girls and unmarried young women. In this carefully researched and thoughtfully argued book, Professor Nadine Bérenguier shares an in-depth analysis of this development, relating the objectives and ideals of these books to the contemporaneous Enlightenment concerns about improving education in order to reform society. Works by Anne-Thérèse de Lambert, Madeleine de Puisieux, Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont, Louise d'Epinay, Barthélémy Graillard de Graville, Chevalier de Cerfvol, abbé Joseph Reyre, Pierre-Louis Roederer, and Marie-Antoinette Lenoir take up a wide variety of topics and vary dramatically in tone. But they all share similar objectives: acquainting their young female readers with the moral and social rules of the world and ensuring their success at the next stage of their lives. While the authors regarded their texts as furthering the common good, they were also aware that they were likely to be controversial among those responsible for girls'education. Bérenguier's sensitive readings highlight these tensions, as she offers readers a rare view of how conduct books were conceived, consumed, re-edited, memorialized, and sometimes forgotten. In the broadest sense, her study contributes to our understanding of how print culture in eighteenth-century France gave shape to a specific social subset of new readers: modern girls. During the eighteenth-century, at a time when secular and religious authors in France were questioning women’s efforts to read, a new literary genre emerged: conduct books written specifically for girls and unmarried young women. In this carefully researched and thoughtfully argued book, Professor Nadine Bérenguier shares an in-depth analysis of this development, relating the objectives and ideals of these books to the contemporaneous Enlightenment concerns about improving education in order to reform society. Works by Anne-Thérèse de Lambert, Madeleine de Puisieux, Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont, Louise d'Epinay, Barthélémy Graillard de Graville, Chevalier de Cerfvol, abbé Joseph Reyre, Pierre-Louis Roederer, and Marie-Antoinette Lenoir take up a wide variety of topics and vary dramatically in tone. But they all share similar objectives: acquainting their young female readers with the moral and social rules of the world and ensuring their success at the next stage of their lives. While the authors regarded their texts as furthering the common good, they were also aware that they were likely to be controversial among those responsible for girls' education. Bérenguier's sensitive readings highlight these tensions, as she offers readers a rare view of how conduct books were conceived, consumed, re-edited, memorialized, and sometimes forgotten. In the broadest sense, her study contributes to our understanding of how print culture in eighteenth-century France gave shape to a specific social subset of new readers: modern girls. At The Same Time That Secular And Religious Authorities Suppressed Women's Efforts To Read, Conduct Books Written Specifically For Girls And Young Unmarried Women Emerged As A New Genre. Nadine Berenguier Offers An In-depth Analysis Of This Development In Eighteenth-century France, Situating Conduct Books In The Context Of Enlightenment Concerns About Improving Education In Order To Reform Society. Her Study Contributes To Our Understanding Of How Print Culture In Eighteenth-century France Gave Shape To A Specific Social Subset Of New Readers: Modern Girls. Between oral and print cultures Authorial anxieties Perceptions of motherhood Maneuvering new social spaces Marriage and its disillusions The cultural landscape of the eighteenth-century press Anne-Thérèse de Lambert's Avis d'une mere a sa fille Madeleine de Puisieux's Conseils a une amie Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont's Magasin des adolescentes and instructions pour les jeunes dames Louise D'Epinay's Conversations d'Emilie Graillard, Cerfvol, and Reyre Conduct books in early literary history Editorial fortunes in the nineteenth century. At the same time that secular and religious authorities suppressed women's efforts to read, conduct books written specifically for girls and young unmarried women emerged as a new genre. This title offers an analysis of this development in eighteenth-century France.