Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, In The Strand. London, 1779. First Edition.
Hardcovers, quartos, complete first edition set with unmatched bindings.
Volume I: Nineteenth century half-leather with blind tooled ribbed spine, cloth boards, 3 page "ADVERTISEMENT", 368 pages plus Index, 5 lines of Errata on last page of index.
Volume II: Eighteenth century half, leather with ribbed spine (missing spine title label), untrimmed page edges, , 344 pages plus Index, 4 Lines of Errata on last page of Index

Alexander’s patronizingly written history written expressly for women discusses the role and status of women from many different walks of life, and many countries and continents, such as Babylonia, ancient Egypt, Greece, Africa, India, America and many others. It also recounts the exploits of individual women.

The History of Women, from the earliest Antiquity, to the present Time; giving some Account of almost every interesting Particular concerning the Sex, among all Nations, ancient and modern, By William Alexander, M D. 4to. 2 Vols. 1L. 10s. Boards. Cadell. 1779.

“The title of this work promises a great deal; and the judicious reader will naturally think that the writer of such a history ought to be possessed of a variety of talents, which are seldom united in one person; that his acquaintance with ancient and modern history ought to be very extensive; that much judgment is necessary both in the choice and in the arrangement of his materials; that he should have conversed much in the polite world; that he should possess great knowledge of the human heart, and that coup d'œil in regard to characters and manners which is absolutely necessary to the successful execution of so difficult a task.

Dr. Alexander does not appear to us to have been sufficiently sensible of the difficulty of his undertaking; if he had, we cannot allow ourselves to think that he would have engaged in it. He has, indeed, collected a great variety of particulars relating to the treatment, the employments,' and amusements, of the fair sex, in different ages and countries; and made some pertinent observations upon them: but his remarks are generally trite, and often frivolous; his materials are injudiciously selected, and badly arranged; the language is inelegant throughout, except when he adopts the language of others. In a word, we are at a loss to know what class of readers can receive any great pleasure from the perusal of his History. His views in publishing it we shall lay before our Readers, in his own words;

'As the following Work was composed solely for the amusement and instruction of the Fair Sex; and as their education is in general less extensive than that of the men; in order to render it the more intelligible, we have studied the utmost plainness and simplicity of language; have not only totally excluded almost every word that is not English, but even, as much as possible, avoided every technical term.

As we persuade ourselves, that nothing could be more perplexing to the sex, or to which they would pay less attention, than a long list of authors on the margin, to shew from whence we have derived our information, and as a great part of such list would refer to books in other languages, we have entirely omitted it, and contented ourselves with sometimes interweaving into our text, the names and sentiments of such authors as have more peculiarly elucidated the subjects we were investigating.

We have not vanity enough to recommend our work to the learned; they must have met with every anecdote related in it; but as the generality of the fair sex, whose reading is more confined, now spend many of their idle hours in poring over novels and romances, which greatly tend to mislead the understanding and corrupt the heart, we cannot help expressing a wish, that they would spare a part of this time to look into the history of their own Sex; a history, which we flatter ourselves will afford them no irrational amusement, and which will more gratify the curiosity of the female mind in whatever relates to themselves, than anything that has hitherto been published.

'We do not mean by this to praise ourselves; we submit with the utmost diffidence to the judgment of the Public. If we have any merit, it is only in collecting together, and presenting in one view, a variety of anecdotes concerning the sex, which lay scattered in a great number of authors, ancient and modern, and not within the reading of the Sex themselves; recourse to larger libraries might have made these anecdotes more numerous, and better judgments would have selected them more judiciously; on these accounts, none can be more sensible of the imperfections of the Work than we are, but we hope our candid Readers will make some allowances for our having trod a path which has never been attempted before; and the Ladies, we flatter ourselves, will treat us with some indulgence, when we assure them, that we have exerted our utmost abilities to put their history into the most engaging dress, and to mingle pleasure with instruction.'

That the Doctor has exerted his utmost abilities, we readily believe; and we hope and trust, for the credit and honour of our sex, that every man, who undertakes to give pleasure to the ladies, will do the same. We question much, however, whether ladies of taste and genius will be satisfied with this Gentleman's exertions, or entertain any high opinion of his abilities; he neither has, indeed, the suaviter in modo, nor the fortiter in re, which all ladies expect from those who enter into their service. It is really surprising that it should not have occurred to the Doctor, that such ladies as are likely to have an opportunity of looking into his history are tolerable judges of composition; that they expect some degree of elegance both of sentiment and diction in such works as are designed either for their amusement or their instruction; and that they must necessarily be shocked with the frequent mention of the very gross and indelicate customs which prevailed in nations that were either only emerging from barbarism, or very little advanced in civilization. Of what use, of what importance, can it possibly be to the British fair, to be informed how the Massagetæ, the Ausi, the Lydians, the Scythians, the Bactrians, the Phœnicians, the Egyptians, &c. &c. treated their women? or to be made acquainted with the customs and ceremonies which prevailed among them?

The sketches our Author gives of the character of the American, African, and Asiatic women, he allows to be imperfect; the vicious and the disagreeable, he tells us, are too frequently predominant in it; and almost the whole of their character, he acknowledges, may be comprised in unremitted endeavours to satisfy a voluptuous appetite. If this be the case, can it possibly tend either to the instruction or the amusement of the fair sex to dwell so long as our Historian does on such disagreeable subjects?”

From a contemporary book review in The Monthly Review - Volume 61 - Page 413

CONDITION: Volume 1: Very Good. (Spine ends, and edges and corners of boards have moderate wear, lower fore corner is chipped, spine title is darkened, some spotting and soiling of boards. Spotting on paper edges. Contents are complete, clean and intact with age-tanned paper.)

Volume 2: Good-. (Covers are very worn at edges and corners, some chipping of leather at spine joints, wear at spine ends. Front pastedown has very old label of “Imlach’s Circulating Library”. Contents are complete with dust soiled paper edges, occasional marginal spots, wear at lower fore corners, a few chipped corners.)