Becoming Bluestockings: Contextualising Hannah More's "The Bas Bleu"

Hannah More's poem 'The Bas Bleu' was the first account of the Bluestockings to be published from within the Bluestocking circle itself. It remained the most significant defence of Bluestocking ideals for many decades thereafter, years in which satirical depictions of the Bluestockings would predominate. This essay locates More's poem in the contexts of its original composition (1783), manuscript circulation and eventual publication (1786). The poem's transformation from a manuscript to a published poem exemplifies its particular significance as a public statement in which the Bluestockings attained prominence and celebrity.

Le thème du mensonge dans Le Petit Canard de Jacques Laurent’

ADEFFI annual conference
Trinity College Dublin
October 2007