Download or read book The Poems and Prose of Mary, Lady Chudleigh written by Lady Mary Lee Chudleigh and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1993 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first edition of the collected poetry and prose of the Restoration feminist, Mary, Lady Chudleigh (1656-1710), this volume includes The Ladies Defence as well as her final prose meditations. New biographical and bibliographical information in the Introduction revises the existing accounts of her life and literary career. The volume makes available for the first time the complete range of Chudleigh's literary experiments and calls for a reassessment of the image of the woman writer of the Restoration. A friend of John Dryden and Mary Astell, Chudleigh experimented with a variety of literary forms, from satire to biblical paraphrase, but always maintained her belief in the importance of education for women and the necessity for self-determination.