G[oczałkowska], Julia.

[EARLY FEMINISM – WOMEN'S EDUCATION] Kobièta czyli: Historyja łzy i śmiechu [Woman, or: A story of tears and laughter].

Lwów: Drukiem Kornela Pillera, 1857. Octavo (20.5 × 13.7 cm). Recent half-cloth and faux-marbled paper over boards; 52, II pp. Private bookplate to front pastedown; light soil to title and first page, else about very good. Item #54303

First edition of this work on female emancipation by Julia Goczałkowska (1809–1888), the Polish writer and educator. The book opens with a call for raising the quality of education for girls and women in Poland, educated primarily at home and through the church in the nineteenth century. Goczałkowska writes: “Today women do not fulfil their vocation as they should; but also men’s current behaviour towards them does not at all improve the women in their own opinion, or confirm her in her belief in her own dignity. The consequences of this may become even more sad over time, because a woman who loses this self-confidence may consider herself worthless at first opportunity.” Throughout the book Goczałkowska argues against “superficial” education typical for girls at the time, focused on comportment and obedience, and in favour of an education focused on true spiritual and intellectual growth.

Born to a noble family, the details of Goczałkowska’s own education are unknown. A prolific writer and editor in her own time, she made her literary debut in 1843, publishing the journal “Rozmaitości dla ludu wiejskiego” (Entertainment for the rural folk), four volumes of which came out in 1843–1845. Her first book “Writings in Verse and Prose” came out in 1845, followed by a book of plays, a novel, and at least two feminist treatises, including this one. In this period she was also an editor of a magazine for women “Wianki: weekly for women devoted to spiritual, intellectual, and industrial education”. A landowner who made her living leasing estates, Goczałkowska also ran female boarding houses in Lviv, and the area in southern Poland around Kraków in Bochnia and Tarnow.

As of May 2024, KVK, OCLC show only one copy outside of Poland, and none in North America.

Price: €500.00

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