The Epitome of Prefeminist Ideas of the Time

Beauty's Triumph: Or, the Superiority of the Fair Sex Invincibly Proved... in Three Parts [Woman Not Inferior to Man; Man Superior to Woman; and Woman's Superior Excellence over Man]

Sophia [pseudonym]

Notes: The collected edition of three of the best-known pre-feminist pamphlets from the mid-18th century. The first, Woman Not Inferior to Man by Sophia, a person of quality, appeared in 1739. It's arguments were refuted a few months later by a "Gentleman", who published Man Superior to Woman. Sophia rebutted the gentleman's obvious and hackneyed view of women in 1741, declaring from the title, Woman's Superior Excellence over Man.

"Woman Not Inferior to Man... was to become the epitome of prefeminist ideas of the time, where [Sophia] dismisses the idea of innate female inferiority and its corollary, male superiority and harshly criticizes men's so-called usurped power over women"—Guyonne Leduc, "The Stylistic Desacralization of Man in Britain in the [Sophia] Pamphlets (1739–1740)" in Partenza, Dynamics of Desacralization.

That all three tracts were collected in this volume lends contemporaneous support to the idea supported by most modern scholars that all came from the same person's pen. All three draw heavily on François Poulain de la Barre work, titled in English The Woman As Good As the Man (1677), with the first and third pamphlets substantially extending his arguments and giving them more force. The identity of Sophia has never been determined and not everyone agrees she was a woman. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was put forward as a leading candidate in a 1975 critical edition of the pamphlets, but that conclusion is not widely shared.

Octavo. [ii], 306 pages.

The title page continues: Wherein the arguments for the natural right of man to a sovereign authority over the woman are fairly urged, and undeniably refuted ; and the undoubted Title of the Ladies, even to a Superiority over the Men both in Head and Heart, is clearly evinced ; Shewing Their Minds to be as much more beautiful than the Mens as their Bodies ; and that, if they had the same Advantages of Education, they would excel their Tyrants as much in Sense as they do in Virtue. In three parts. The Whole interspers'd with a delightful Variety of Characters, which some of the most celebrated Heroes and Heroines of the present Time have had the Goodness to sit for.

Edition + Condition: First collected edition. A good copy with some foxing to the pages and chipping to the top of the spine of the contemporary leather binding. Previous owner's name (James Byrle Newton) on the title page.

Publication: London: Printed and sold by J. Robinson at the Golden Lion in Ludgate-Street, 1751.

Item No: #307610

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