Political passions

the long version

"Using sources that range from high political theory to scurrilous lampoons, Weil considers public debates about succession, resistance and divorce. She examines the allegedly fraudulent birth of the Prince of Wales in 1688, the uses to which Williamite propagandists put the image of the paradoxically sovereign but obedient Mary II, anxieties about the influence of bedchamber women on Queen Anne, the political self-image of the notorious Duchess of Marlborough, the relationship of feminism and Tory ideology in the polemical writings of Mary Astell and the scandal novels of Delaviere Manley." "Solidly grounded in current historical scholarship, but written in an engaging manner that is accessible to non-specialists, this book will interest students of literature, gender studies, political culture and political theory as well as historians."--BOOK JACKET.