£200
8vo, pp. [iv], 188, 32 [ads]. Original mustard cloth, spine lettered in gilt, boards blocked in blind. Two leaves heavily toned, a few pencil underlinings. Binding slightly rubbed and a little discoloured, front joint a touch shaken. Ink ownership inscription of Mary E. Butterworth dated 1875 to verso of front flyeaf, later bookplate of Jean Wilson Corke to front pastedown.
The third edition of John Stuart Mill's uncommonly forward-thinking feminist text, first published in 1869. In his autobiography, Mill cites both his daughter Helen's and his wife Harriet Taylor Mill's influence on the work: 'As ultimately published it was enriched with some important ideas of my daughter's and some passages of her writing. But all that is most striking and profound in what was written by me belongs to my wife, coming from the fund of thought that had been made common to us both by our innumerable conversations and discussions on a topic that filled so large a place in our minds.' This copy also boasts a contemporary female ownership inscription.
