[ SECRET POST #4274 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4274 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 33 secrets from Secret Submission Post #612.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 2 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

But is that a gender thing, or a social class and wealth thing? How many male writers from poor, rural families were there? I don't think it was a lot.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, but women weren't supposed to be reading. That was a Man's Thing in rural towns, women were too busy doing their work around town and caring for the kids. If she was reading, then clearly she wasn't doing enough whereas a man had to read because of multiple reasons, including he would be the one in charge of family finances.

[(Anonymous)]

Wasn't France in particular good about literacy in that time? Like, even for peasants and women?

[(Anonymous)]

da

The data is kind of mixed on this. France was middle of the pack, I'd say. Literacy during the Pre-Revolution years was strong in Northwest of Europe, which included Northern France, but the South had dismal literacy rates. The Church did encourage education for everyone, but if you were a sharecropper's daughter you were pretty much destined to be illiterate. The daughter of a provincial tinkerer? It would depend on his wealth and how much he valued the education of his daughter. She would most likely know enough to help her future husband (who would likely be a tradesman), but maybe not enough to enjoy a sonnet.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not sold on the notion that men in rural towns were doing enough reading such that Belle reading would be shocking because she's a woman rather than shocking because she is a person of any gender reading in a rural town.