

With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. The Book of the City of Ladies provides positive images of women, ranging from warriors and inventors, scholars to prophetesses, and artists to saints. Christine de Pizans spirited defence of her sex was unique for its direct confrontation of the misogyny of her day, and offers a telling insight into the position of women in medieval culture. They instruct her to build an allegorical city in which womankind can be defended against slander, its walls and towers constructed from examples of female achievement both from her own day and the past: ranging from warriors, inventors and scholars to prophetesses, artists and saints. Book Synopsis A fascinating insight into the debates and controversies about the position of women in medieval culture, written by Frances first professional woman of letters The pioneering Book of the City of Ladies begins when, feeling frustrated and miserable after reading a male writers tirade against women, Christine de Pizan has a dreamlike vision where three virtues-Reason, Rectitude and Justice-appear to correct this view.
