Hester Chapone ''née'' Mulso (27 October 1727, Twywell,

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

– 25 December 1801, Hadwell, Middlesex), was an English writer of

conduct book Conduct books or conduct literature is a genre of books that attempt to educate the reader on social norms and ideals. As a genre, they began in the mid-to-late Middle Ages, although antecedents such as ''The Maxims of Ptahhotep'' (c. 2350 BC) ...

s for women. She became associated with the London

Bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' is a term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic Elizabeth Montagu (1718–1800), the "Queen of the Blues", including E ...

Life

Hester, the daughter of Thomas Mulso (1695–1763), a gentleman farmer, and his wife (died 1747/1748), a daughter of Colonel Thomas, wrote a romance at the age of nine entitled "The Loves of Amoret and Melissa", which earned her mother's disapproval. She was educated more thoroughly than most girls in that period, learning French, Italian and Latin, and began writing regularly and corresponding with other writers at the age of 18. Her earliest published works were four brief pieces for

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

's journal ''

The Rambler ''The Rambler'' was a periodical (strictly, a series of short papers) by Samuel Johnson. Description ''The Rambler'' was published on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 1750 to 1752 and totals 208 articles. It was Johnson's most consistent and sustain ...

'' in 1750. She was married in 1760 to the solicitor John Chapone (c. 1728–1761), the son of an earlier moral writer,

Sarah Chapone Sarah Chapone (11 December 169924 February 1764), born Sarah Kirkham and often referred to as Mrs Chapone, was an English legal theorist, pamphleteer, and prolific Women letter writers, letter writer. She is best known for the treatise ''The Har ...

(1699–1764), but she was soon widowed. Hester Chapone became associated with the learned ladies or

s who gathered around

Elizabeth Montagu Elizabeth Montagu (née Robinson; 2 October 1718 – 25 August 1800) was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonnière, literary critic and writer, who helped to organize and lead the Blue Stockings Society. Her parents were both ...

and wrote ''Letters on the Improvement of the Mind'' and ''

Miscellanies A miscellany is a collection of various pieces of writing by different authors. Meaning a mixture, medley, or assortment, a wikt:miscellany, miscellany can include pieces on many subjects and in a variety of different Literary genre, forms. In c ...

''. She died at Monken Hadley, Middlesex, on 25 December 1801.

Conduct books

The ''Letters...'' were written initially for Chapone's 15-year-old niece in 1773, but by 1800 had been through at least 16 editions. A further 12 editions had appeared by 1829, at least one of them a French translation. They focused on encouraging rational understanding through the reading of the Bible, history and literature. The niece was also urged to study book-keeping, household management, botany, geology and astronomy. Only sentimental novels were to be avoided.

Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...

singled the book out as one of few examples of the self-improvement genre that deserved praise. The tide of advice or conduct books in Britain reached its height between 1760 and 1820; one scholar calls the period "the age of

courtesy book A courtesy book (also book of manners) was a didactic manual of knowledge for courtiers to handle matters of etiquette, socially acceptable behaviour, and personal morals, with an especial emphasis upon life in a royal court; the genre of courtesy ...

s for women". As

Nancy Armstrong Nancy Armstrong (born 1938) is a scholar, critic and professor of English at Duke University. Overview Before moving to Duke, Armstrong was the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Comparative Literature, English, Modern Culture & Media, and Gender Studi ...

writes in her ''Desire and Domestic Fiction'' (1987): "So popular did these books become that by the second half of the eighteenth century virtually everyone knew the ideal of womanhood they proposed." Chapone's is a typical example. Conduct books picked up the styles and rhetoric of earlier genres such as devotional writings, marriage manuals, recipe books and works on household economy. They offered a description most often of the ideal woman, while handing out practical advice. Not only did they dictate morality, but they guided readers' choice of dress and outlined what was seen in the period as proper etiquette. Chapone's work in particular influenced Wollstonecraft in her composition of ''Thoughts'', for its "sustained programme of study for women" and basis on the idea that Christianity should be "the chief instructor of our rational faculties". and on its emphasis that women should be seen as rational beings and not left to wallow in "sensualism". Wollstonecraft drew on both Chapone and Macaulay's works when she wrote ''

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ''A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects'' (1792), written by British philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), is one of the earliest works of feminist philosop ...

'' in 1792. Another admirer, and also a personal friend, was the novelist and diarist

Frances Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...

. Their surviving correspondence includes a letter of condolence of 4 April 1799 from Burney to Chapone, on the death in childbirth of Jane Jeffreyes, née Mulso, the niece to whom the ''Letters on the Improvement of the Mind'' had been addressed.

Cultural influence

The 19th-century novelist

Elizabeth Gaskell Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many st ...

refers to Chapone as an epistolatory model, bracketing her in '' Cranford'' with

Elizabeth Carter Elizabeth Carter (pen name Eliza; 16 December 1717 – 19 February 1806) was an English poet, classicist, writer, translator, linguist, and polymath. As one of the Bluestocking Circle that surrounded Elizabeth Montagu,Encyclopaedia BritannicRet ...

, a much better educated Bluestocking. The book also appears in

Anne Brontë Anne Brontë (, commonly ; 17 January 1820 – 28 May 1849) was an English novelist and poet, and the youngest member of the Brontë literary family. Anne Brontë was the daughter of Maria (born Branwell) and Patrick Brontë, a poor Irish cl ...

's novel ''

Agnes Grey ''Agnes Grey, A Novel'' is the debut novel of English author Anne Brontë (writing under the pen name of "Acton Bell"), first published in December 1847, and republished in a second edition in 1850. The novel follows Agnes Grey, a governess, as ...

'' through one of the characters, and had an influence on

Samuel Richardson Samuel Richardson (baptised 19 August 1689 – 4 July 1761) was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: ''Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'' (1740), '' Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady'' (1748) and ''The History of ...

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

and

.Adachi Michiyo
Agnes Grey As a Conduct Book
In Chapter 1 of Vanity Fair,

Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel ''Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and th ...

sums up the self-image of Miss Pinkerton, proprietor of an "academy for young ladies", by describing her as "that majestic lady; the

Semiramis ''Samīrāmīs'', hy, Շամիրամ ''Šamiram'') was the semi-legendary Lydian- Babylonian wife of Onnes and Ninus, who succeeded the latter to the throne of Assyria, according to Movses Khorenatsi. Legends narrated by Diodorus Siculus, who dre ...

of Hammersmith, the friend of Doctor Johnson, the correspondent of Mrs. Chapone herself"; later in the same chapter Miss Pinkerton notes that her establishment, The Mall, enjoyed "the patronage of the admirable Mrs Chapone". Richardson and

edited a compilation of Chapone's writings entitled ''"The Posthumous Works of Mrs. Chapone: Containing Her Correspondence with Mr. Richardson; a Series of Letters to Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, and Some Fugitive Pieces, Never Before Published. Together with an Account of Her Life and Character, Drawn Up by Her Own Family"'' (1807). There, Chapone is quoted: "Though men's ways are unequal, the ways of God are equal, and with him ''even women'' shall find justice."

Notes

Bibliography

, ''Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. *Elizabeth Eger and

Lucy Peltz Dr. Lucy Peltz is Head of Collection Displays (Tudor to Regency) and Senior Curator 18th Century Collections at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Peltz studied History of Art and French at Sussex University, followed by an MA in the Histor ...

, ''Brilliant Women: 18th-Century Bluestockings'', National Portrait Gallery, London, 2008 *Kathryn Sutherland, "Writings on Education and Conduct: Arguments for Female Improvement". ''Women and Literature in Britain 1700–1800''. Ed. Vivien Jones. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. *Barbara Eaton, ''Yes Papa!: Mrs Chapone and the bluestocking circle; a biography of Hester Mulso – Mrs Chapone (1727–1801), a bluestocking'', London: Francis Boutle Publishers, 2012, *

Biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

in Dictionary of National Biography

External links

Hester Chapone
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chapone, Hester 1727 births 1801 deaths English women writers 18th-century British writers People from North Northamptonshire 18th-century British women writers 18th-century English women 18th-century English people