Coelebs In Search of a Wife

This book is about a wealthy twenty-three-year-old bachelor, who styles himself Coelebs (unmarried), but seeks a wife. After the death of his father, Coelebs journeys from the north of England to London, where he encounters a fashionable array of eager mothers and daughters before he visits the Hampshire home of his father’s friend, Mr. Stanley. Lucilla Stanley, Mr. Stanley's daughter, is both an intellectual and a domestic woman, and Coelebs' ideal partner. In this intelligent novel about the meeting of two minds, More shows the ways in which a couple becomes truly matched as opposed to merely joined. Along with a critical introduction, this Broadview edition includes a wide selection of historical documents, from reviews, imitations, and sequels of Coelebs in Search of a Wife to related contemporary writings on conduct, courtship, and women’s education.