The Wanderings of Woe, or Conjugal Affection.

£850 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Rare. OCLC/COPAC record copies at BL , Bodley and Durham ; Stanford and University of Portland only in the USA. A very good unsophisticated copy of an unusual book which opens with an almost hysterical lament for the author’s recently deceased wife before discussing other matters such as the laws around bankruptcy and the “wrongs of women” in which Cox calls for the protection of women and the promotion of jobs specifically for women. A remarkably personal long poem by Rev James Cox, Master of Gainsborough School which begins with his writing about his lately deceased wife (“written, in that dreadful week”) and with later reflections on her memory. The first part of the poem is written when, “The body is not yet interred.” (p.1) The poem opens up into a wider description of society (as Cox sees it) and particularly the role of women in society, this theme is returned to in the prose essays at the end of the book. In his essay “The Wrong of Women” p.111), Cox bemoans the supposedly large number of destitute and vulnerable women on the streets of London: ““Whenever I visit that mart of all that is great and all that is shameful, the metropolis of England I find my compassion moved, and my indignation raised, by those wretched and diseased creatures, lost to honour and to happiness, with whom the streets in an evening are crowded” (p.111) Cox continues by calling for men who have been found to have “seduced” a young woman would be faced with strong economic penalties which would

• Binding: Hardcover

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