The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot In Seventeenth-Century England
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
A landmark work of social history, The Weaker Vessel chronicles the lives of women in seventeenth-century England with remarkable depth and humanity, drawing on diaries, letters, court records, and contemporary accounts to reconstruct their daily realities. Antonia Fraser presents a sweeping portrait of women across all social strata — from aristocratic ladies and Civil War heroines to midwives, servants, and prisoners — illustrating how war, religion, law, and marriage shaped their fates in profound and often contradictory ways. Written with the narrative flair of a seasoned storyteller, the work balances rigorous scholarship with vivid, accessible prose that brings long-forgotten voices back to life. Fraser argues persuasively that despite the era's rigid patriarchal structures, women exercised remarkable agency, courage, and ingenuity in navigating a world that legally and socially defined them as subordinate. The result is an authoritative and deeply humane account that remains essential reading for anyone interested in women's history, the English Civil War, or the social fabric of early modern Britain.
Author: Antonia Fraser
Format: Hardback
Published: 1984, Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Genre: British & Irish history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
A landmark work of social history, The Weaker Vessel chronicles the lives of women in seventeenth-century England with remarkable depth and humanity, drawing on diaries, letters, court records, and contemporary accounts to reconstruct their daily realities. Antonia Fraser presents a sweeping portrait of women across all social strata — from aristocratic ladies and Civil War heroines to midwives, servants, and prisoners — illustrating how war, religion, law, and marriage shaped their fates in profound and often contradictory ways. Written with the narrative flair of a seasoned storyteller, the work balances rigorous scholarship with vivid, accessible prose that brings long-forgotten voices back to life. Fraser argues persuasively that despite the era's rigid patriarchal structures, women exercised remarkable agency, courage, and ingenuity in navigating a world that legally and socially defined them as subordinate. The result is an authoritative and deeply humane account that remains essential reading for anyone interested in women's history, the English Civil War, or the social fabric of early modern Britain.