How to Marry Well

"HOW TO MARRY WELL" by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (aka The Duchess), is just a brilliant work in so many ways.


Fans of the Victorian era will rejoice to hear that particular 'voice' in her writing. And history lovers will be able to comb it over for delicious tidbits as Ms. Hungerford reveals her advice to young women, and her expectations of how they might act.


I particularly liked where she admonishes society for releasing girls into society with so little education. "A smattering of French, a word or two of German, an idea of what music really means, as gained from three years' acquaintances with scales and movements, and songs without words--and that is all! There is, of course, a good deal of reading of the scientific masters that serves only to puzzle the brains half given to the matter in hand, and then the girl is emancipated from the schoolroom".


And I personally found her advice to be most sound. And I'm plotting, even as I write this, on to how to get my own daughter to read this tract.


It's short and fun, though I must tell you that Ms. Hungerford is not a duchess. She's just a mom and a writer with common sense and an active imagination.