A Description of Millenium Hall,: and the Country Adjacent: Together with the Characters of the Inhabitants, And such Historical Anecdotes and Reflections, As May excite in the Reader proper Sentiments of Humanity, and lead the Mind to the Love of Virtue. By A Gentleman on his Travels.

London: printed for J. Newbery,, 1762. The most important utopian women's novel produced in 18th-century Britain First edition of this scarce early feminist utopian novel, in which the author fictionalized her experiences living and working alongside women in Bath as an alternative model to sustaining oneself through marriage. Having freed themselves from the tyrannies of gender expectations, the women in the story turn towards educating the wider community, sheltering the homeless, and relieving poverty and animal cruelty. "Millenium Hall gives utopian fictional form to the Anglican social ideals of what by this time was known as the 'bluestocking circle'" (ODNB). The bluestockings were an informal, women-centred literary discussion group led by the author's sister Elizabeth Montagu (1718-1800), who is lightly satirized in the work as the status-driven Lady Brumpton. While Montagu staked out her position as a star of literary London, Sarah Scott (née Robinson, 1720-1795) lived on the outskirts of the republic of letters, writing novels, histories, and translations while tending to her sickly philanthropist friend Lady Barbara Montagu (c. 1722-1765) in Bath. As a result, Scott paradoxically became "the most published yet one of the least known of the first-generation bluestocking writers in their time" (Kelly, p. 18). The anonymously published work is credited to its male narrator, "A Gentleman on his Travels" who relates his discovery of the women's commune living at Millenium Hall. Scott's authorship, however, was widely known, and the work proved her greatest success, reaching its fourth edition in 1778. "Her fictional writing does not repeat itself in form but takes on new technical issues with each title. Her concerns are always those of proto-feminism: the problems of middle-class women disadvantaged by poverty, lack of beauty, and absence of outlets for their talents, and the plight of lower-class women and the disabled" (Orlando). This copy has an appropriate contemporary ownership inscription on the front free endpaper which reads "Ann Allison, the gift of Mrs Steel". Duodecimo (164 x 96 mm). Contemporary calf, unlettered spine and covers ruled in gilt, blind roll on board edges. Steel-engraved frontispiece of two men discovering Millenium Hall, woodcut head- and tailpieces. Publisher's 2-page catalogue, dated 14 January 1762, at end. Binding professionally refurbished and presenting well, small hole to rear free endpaper. A very good copy. ESTC T107679; Halkett & Laing II, p. 41 (erroneously arguing for Oliver Goldsmith's authorship over Sarah Scott and others); Negley 1016; Sargent 1762. Vita Fortunati & Raymond Trousson, eds, Dictionary of Literary Utopias, 2000, pp. 393-4; Gary Kelly, intro., Millenium Hall, 1995.