Physical description

Hard cover book. Literary and Social Judgements
Author: William Rathbone Greg
Publisher: Trubner and Co
Date: 1869–1873
Further Information: Green Cloth hardcover with a pattern to front cover in black lettering and patterning to spine also in black. The spine has a Library label with an inscription.

Publication type

non-fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on the spine with the typed text PAT 824 GRE
Paste down front end paper has a sticker from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a stamp from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute
Flyleaf has a stamp from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute

Summary

The volume collects Greg's periodical essays on writers and on the "woman question". A library catalogue lists the contents as "Madame de Staël", "British and Foreign Characteristics", "False Morality of Lady Novelists", "Kingsley and Carlyle", "French Fiction", "Chateaubriand", "M. de Tocqueville" and "Why Are Women Redundant?". In effect, the literary pieces judge authors by their moral and social influence, not by aesthetics alone. The best-known essay is "Why Are Women Redundant?", which dealt with the surplus of unmarried women in Victorian Britain. It first appeared in the National Review before being collected and published in book form.