WOOLF, Virginia (1882-1941)] -- MONTESQUIEU, Charles de Secondat (1689-1755). Lettres Persanes . Cologne: Pierre Marteau, 1731. 2 volumes. 12°. Title pages printed in red and black. Original calf (joints cracked, vol I lacking title label, that to vol. II chipped). WITH PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION FROM VIRGINIA WOOLF 'Ottoline Morrell from Virginia Christmas 1934.' On 31 December 1933 Woolf wrote to Morrell: 'I'm sending you a little book, Montesqueou (cant spell it) though you will have it, but its small and can be stood in a corner -- (or let me give you another) -- I was reading it the day Julian was born, and have a sentimental feeling for a special page. And that was before I met you ... so goodnight - and tomorrow is 1934.' ( Letters ). Julian Bell was born on 4 February 1908. There is no physical indication in the book of which this 'special page' might be, but Montesquieu's tale was famous for its discussion of the treatment of women, in passages such as the one in Letter CXXV in this edition (vol.II, pp.272-273) in which the idea that 'Paradise is only for men' is rejected by Zulema: 'That is the common view,' she said; 'nothing has been neglected in order to degrade our sex.' She goes on to imagine a female heaven in which Anais is 'carried to a sumptuous bed, where two men of entrancing beauty took her in their arms.' Just as these protests against conventional restraints shocked 18th-century France, so many people were shocked by the novels of Virginia Woolf and the behaviour of the Bloomsbury Group.
WOOLF, Virginia (1882-1941)] -- MONTESQUIEU, Charles de Secondat (1689-1755). Lettres Persanes . Cologne: Pierre Marteau, 1731. 2 volumes. 12°. Title pages printed in red and black. Original calf (joints cracked, vol I lacking title label, that to vol. II chipped). WITH PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION FROM VIRGINIA WOOLF 'Ottoline Morrell from Virginia Christmas 1934.' On 31 December 1933 Woolf wrote to Morrell: 'I'm sending you a little book, Montesqueou (cant spell it) though you will have it, but its small and can be stood in a corner -- (or let me give you another) -- I was reading it the day Julian was born, and have a sentimental feeling for a special page. And that was before I met you ... so goodnight - and tomorrow is 1934.' ( Letters ). Julian Bell was born on 4 February 1908. There is no physical indication in the book of which this 'special page' might be, but Montesquieu's tale was famous for its discussion of the treatment of women, in passages such as the one in Letter CXXV in this edition (vol.II, pp.272-273) in which the idea that 'Paradise is only for men' is rejected by Zulema: 'That is the common view,' she said; 'nothing has been neglected in order to degrade our sex.' She goes on to imagine a female heaven in which Anais is 'carried to a sumptuous bed, where two men of entrancing beauty took her in their arms.' Just as these protests against conventional restraints shocked 18th-century France, so many people were shocked by the novels of Virginia Woolf and the behaviour of the Bloomsbury Group.
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