Folk-Lore of Women as Illustrated by Legendary and Traditionary Tales, Folk-Rhymes, Proverbial Sayings, Superstitions, Etc.

Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co, 1906. First American Edition, 1st Printing. Hardcover. Good +. First American Edition, 1st Printing. Hardcover. "It is not surprising that the beauty of woman--in praise of which both literature and art have from the earliest period lavished some of their grandest works--should have given rise in most countries to a host of strange and romantic fancies." These strange and romantic fancies, passed down through the centuries in folk-lore, art, and literature, are gathered together here in The Folk-lore of Women, regarding not only woman's beauty, but the color of her eyes, her secrets and curiosity, her love of or rivalry with her sisters, her haunting of lost loves, her tears, blushes, and much more. This study of legend and lore of the fairer sex was penned in 1906 by historian and collector of folklore, The Reverend Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer (1848-1923), author of such titles as The Folk-lore of Plants and Domestic Folk-lore. Along with a preface contextualizing the work with other folklore studies of the time, chapters include: Woman's Characteristics, Woman's Beauty, Woman's Dress, Woman's Eyes, Woman's Tongue, Woman's Goodness, Bad Women, Woman's Love, Woman's Hate, Love Tests, Woman's Secrets, Red-Haired Girls, Woman's Fickleness, Local Allusions to Women, Woman's Will, Women and Marriage, Women as Wives, Young and Old Maids, Widows, Woman's Curiosity, Sister Legends, Brides and Their Maids, Superstitions about Women, Woman's Tears, Woman's Blushes, Daughters, My Lady's Walk, all adorned throughout with lovely chapter head and tail vignettes.

8 1/4" X 5 3/4". xvi, 253pp, plus one page of ads. Bound in full red cloth over boards, with upper board stamped in black with the illustration of a woman reading and upper board and spine lettered in gilt. Moderate edgewear to binding, with small tears to head and tail of spine, hard lean to spine, and some darkening to cloth in places. Name of Ann Stackhouse, Moorestown, NJ to flyleaf. Front hinge a touch tender. Binding is sound. Pages are clean and unmarked.