Autograph Letter Signed "Marguerite Blessington", Irish Society hostess and author, to [LEGOUVÉ, Ernest Wilfrid (1807-1903] about his book, "Histoire Morale des Femmes", just published.

Two pages, 4to, fold marks, some marking, good condition, text clear and complete, as follows: "Permit me to thank you for one of the most acceptable gifts I have ever received, the 'Histoire Morale des Femmes", and for the aimable [underlined] note that accompanied it. Let me thank you also in the name of my Sex for the great service you have rendered us by the admirable Exposé [underlined] of our wrongs, and generous advocacy of our Virtues. Such a work is worthy of a Son of the Author of "Le Mérite des Femmes" [LEGOUVÉ, Gabriel LE MÉRITE DES FEMMES, Poëme] who created a noble Column to commemorate the worth of Women, to which you have added a Capital of exquisite workmanship. I congratulate you on the possession of a mother, wife, and Sister, endowed with Virtues to inspire an interest in your breast for the whole Sex, and to justify your courageous defence of it, for your book convinces me that in such near, and dear relations, you found the source of your inspiration. Happy are the womenwho can thuis arm so able a Champion, to protect the less fortunate of thier Sex, and thrice happy is the Man who finds in his own family women whose virtues give him faith in the existence of virtue in others. I have perused your inimitable volume with the deepest interest, and most profound admiration - Such a work must [underlined] effect good, for it contains matter for grave reflection, which is the first step towards a reformation of the injustice complained of. I owe many thanks to my friend Mr Eugene Sue for having procured me the valuable present of your book, and I hope some time or other, either in Paris, or in London, to have an opportunity of assuring you in person of the high esteem with which, I have the honor to subscribe myself ..." Note: "Legouvé, Ernest Wilfred (1807-1903), an influential French dramatist and essayist, and subsequently a member of the Academie Française, delivered a path-breaking series of lectures on the history of women at the Collège de France in Paris during the spring months of 1848. The new republican ministry of public education sponsored Legouvé's lectures, at the instigation of Legouvé's good friend, Jean Reynaud, who had been appointed under-secretary to the minister, Hippolyte Carnot. Hundreds of Parisians flocked to these weekly lectures, which publicly inserted an analysis of gender (or the social construction of sexual differences) and women's history into the politics of the revolution then underway. Until recently, Legouvé's lectures and his subsequent 450-page book, Histoire morale des femmes (Paris: Gustave Sandre, 1849) have received only passing mention in the scholarship on the 1848 revolution. The political aspect of his lectures, however, deserves further attention, for he raised significant questions about the sociopolitical implications of the relation of the sexes. At the outset he charged that the first French Revolution had failed because it was unjust to women. He advocated that the "virile" republican principles of liberty and equality could not be realized unless complimented by the feminine virtue of fraternity, informed by women's love. In subsequent lectures Legouvé made a protracted argument for "equality in difference," a case for women's emancipation under the republic, grounded in women's distinctive physiological, mental, and emotional differences from men, and on the dignity of their social role as mothers" (http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/ip/legouve.htm)