An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting

"This is a satirical work and I think it gives us a very clear idea of how some women read the so-called “conduct books”. These books emerged in the late 16th and early 17th century and they told women how to behave in every respect, from being perfect wives to loving mothers. They were absolutely like that and ranged across every aspect of a woman’s life. They were clearly popular. They obviously sold well. The question is how many women actually read them and how seriously did they take them. Yes, this is a parody, and I suspect that Jane Collier wasn’t the only woman to have read these books and thought, “How tedious and absurd and why should I aspire to be all these things?” It’s a wonderful act of rebellion and it’s very funny because she thinks of all sorts of ways of being the opposite kind of woman from the woman the conduct books were promoting. Well, for example, if there is someone that you don’t like very much – and she talks about them as a “friend” but it could equally be a husband – you can try to avoid them socially for as long as you possibly can, then when you bump into them you accuse them of having been avoiding you! Also, you can say something like, “Isn’t it appalling, these rumours that are circulating about you? You must be so embarrassed and of course I know they aren’t true…”"