Henry James wrote of Lucy Aikin: “Clever, sagacious, shrewd ... and an accomplished writer, one wonders why her vigorous intellectual temperament has not attracted independent notice.” The most important long poem by a woman from the British Romantic era, Aikin’s Epistles on Women (1810) is the first text in English to re-write the entire history of western culture, from the creation story of Genesis through the eighteenth century, from a feminist perspective. Responding to Alexander Pope’s misogynistic “Epistle to a Lady,” Aikin argues that men’s degradation of women has hindered the growth of civilization, and provides historical and literary evidence for her claim that “man cannot degrade woman without degrading himself.”

In addition to Epistles on Women, this Broadview Edition also includes a wide selection of poetry, historical writing, fiction, memoir, and literary criticism by Aikin, as well as letters, contemporary reviews, and other feminist historiographies.

Lucy Aikin's profile page

Anne K. Mellor's profile page

Michelle Levy's profile page

Michelle Levy is Associate Professor of English at Simon Fraser University.

“This excellent edition of Aikin’s first poem, delineating beliefs to which she subscribed her whole life, firmly situates her work between Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘equality feminism’ and Anna Letitia Barbauld’s essentialism. The edition is a must-have for courses in nineteenth-century literature as well as in feminism.” — Laura Mandell, Miami University of Ohio

“Lucy Aikin is becoming increasingly recognised as a key figure in religious Dissent and women’s writing of the Romantic period, and the meticulous scholarship of Anne K. Mellor and Michelle Levy makes her work readily accessible for the first time. They provide a superb introduction to Aikin’s broader context and biography; their full annotations and contemporary material will make this book a useful teaching resource. This is also, however, an important piece of research and recovery: a splendid edition that helps us to understand the scope of Aikin’s achievements as poet, historian, biographer, children’s author, and critic.” — Felicity James, University of Leicester