Madame Roland.

BLIND, Mathilde. [Emily Duval].

$600.00

Item Number: 135220

London: W. H. Allen & Co, 1886.

The Eminent Women Series edition of Blind’s biography of French revolutionary Marie-Jeanne ‘Manon’ Roland de la Platière. Octavo, original publisher’s decorated cloth, patterned endpapers. From the library of English suffragette Emily H. Duval with her ownership signature to the half-title page. English suffragette Emily Duval was a militant petitioner in the fight for women’s voting rights and was imprisoned several times. In good condition.

In 1872, the fight for women’s suffrage became a national movement in England with the formation of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage and later the more influential National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). In addition to England, women’s suffrage movements in Wales, Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom gained momentum. By 1906, the movements had begun to shift popular sentiments and a militant campaign began with the formation of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Known as the suffragettes, its membership and policies were tightly controlled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia (although Sylvia was eventually expelled). The WSPU membership became known for civil disobedience and direct action. It heckled politicians, held demonstrations and marches, broke the law to force arrests, broke windows in prominent buildings, set fire to post boxes, committed night-time arson of unoccupied houses and churches, and—when imprisoned—went on hunger strike and endured force-feeding.