CRAIK, Dinah Maria Mullock . A Woman’s Thoughts About Women. London, Hurst and Blackett, 1859 first reprint of the 1858 first edition. Pp [vi] , contents leaf, 348, [vi] publisher’s adverts . Original embossed purple cloth covered boards, gilt to the front board and spine, the latter faded and rubbed with wear to the top.. The rear board fading to blue at spine and top edge. Tissue guarded frontis is foxed, largely to the edges, the top edges of the pages are untrimmed, internally the text block has minor creasing and light foxing, and some sections are becoming loose. Ownership inscription of Lydia B.Young for 1900 to the front free endpaper. Overall a Good to Very Good copy, complete but with signs of wear. Craik’s advice book for “ordinary middle ranks of unmarried females” differs from others of the period. She is critical of the way in which young women were brought up to be helpless : “ lovely uselessness” is an insult to women and to God. She writes about sisterhood and unity between women, and states that “ the whole working class is a silent class” . She writes of the “ wretched lodging house ‘ slavey‘, who seems to be less a woman than a mere working animal”.Unusually for the times, Craik writes frankly about “ fallen women” suggesting that dismissing a pregnant servant without a reference removes her ability to earn a living, leading to infanticide and degradation .She suggests that it is better to “ face the truth at once, in all its bareness, than be swaddled up forever in the folds of a silken falsehood”.