Grace Norton [Gethin] and Frances (Freke) Norton: Printed Writings 1641–1700: Series II, Part Two, Volume 9 (The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works & Printed Writings, 1641-1700: Series II, Part Two: Pt. 2)

By: Bernadette Andrea

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Synopsis: This facsimile edition features the intimately related writings of a mother, Lady Frances Norton (1640-1731), and her daughter, Lady Grace Gethin (1676-97). The posthumous publication of Gethin's collection of essays Misery's Virtues Whet-Stone (1699) was sponsored by her mother; subsequently Norton invoked her maternal grief as the grounds for publishing her own essay collection The Applause of Virtue to which is appended Memento Mori: Or, Meditations on Death (1705). These essay collections unconventionally privilege a female perspective on traditional topics such as friendship, love, marriage and death. Accordingly, they hold an intrinsic interest for their gendered point of view, as well as an extrinsic interest for their conditions of production. Norton's final published work, A Miscellany of Poems, Compos'd and work'd with a Needle, on the Backs and Seats &c. Of several Chairs and Stools (1714), further reprises the theme of maternal grief as the justification for women's writing. This extremely rare volume, which has not been listed in the English Short-Title Catalogue until now, is being reissued here for the first time since 1714.