@booklet {7231, title = {The Empire of the Nairs; or, The Rights of Women. An Eutopian Romance, in Twelve Books}, volume = {4 vols. in 2.}, year = {1811}, note = {

Rpt. as The Empire of the Nairs (1811). 4 vols. in 1. Delmar, NY: Scholars\’ Facsimiles \& Reprints, 1976; and in Modern British Utopias 1700-1850. Ed. Gregory Claeys. 8 vols. (London: Pickering \& Chatto, 1997), 5: 1-328.

}, month = {1811}, publisher = {Ptd. for T. Hookham and E.T. Hookham}, address = {London}, abstract = {

Largely adventure and romance but presented as a picture of a eutopia of equality for women. Men are completely free from all duties except warfare. Women are revered as mothers and supported as such by the state. No marriage and women choose their lovers as they wish. Every house belongs to some woman and men live with relatives or lovers. Lawrence drew inspiration from and refers to Mary Wollstonecraft\&$\#$39;s (1759-97) Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1782).\ The description of sexual freedom influenced Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822); see 1817 and 1821 Shelley, both of which were so influenced. Shelley wrote Lawrence on August 17, 1812, saying \"Your \&$\#$39;Empire of the Nairs,\&$\#$39; which I read this Spring, succeeded in making me a perfect convert to its doctrines\" (The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Ed. Frederick L. Jones. 2 vols. (Oxford, Eng.: Clarendon Press, 1964), 1: 323. See Walter Graham, \"Shelley and The Empire of the Nairs.\"\ PMLA\ 40.4 (December 1925): 881-91. The Nairs are based on an actual Hindu caste from Kerela in India. On the actual Nairs, see {\'E}lie Reclus, \"The Na{\"\i}rs, Warrior Nobility and the Matriarchate.\" In his\ Primitive Folk: Studies in Comparative Ethnology\ (London: Walter Scott, [1891?]), 143-77. Originally published in French but no translator given.

}, keywords = {English author, Male author}, author = {James [Henry] Lawrence (1773-1840)} }