Mental Improvement

Written in the 1790s, Mental Improvementis a family narrative dealing with issues such as domestic ideology, female agency, and science. Strongly influenced by the values of the Enlightenment, its message is that knowledgeis the path to liberation, and that such knowledge can be found in many places, including maternal teaching, family patterns, and conversation; it also advances the idea of transformation through information, especially that of natural history.
ANN B. SHTEIRis at York University, Canada.