How to Create the Perfect Wife: Britain’s Most Ineligible Bachelor and his Enlightened Quest to Train the Ideal Mate by Wendy Moore

This “extraordinarily strange” book brings to light the real-life misadventures of a would-be Pygmalion.

(Basic, $28)

This “extraordinarily strange” book brings to light the real-life misadventures of a would-be Pygmalion, said Kate Tuttle in The Boston Globe. By certain measures, the 18th-century children’s writer Thomas Day was a progressive thinker for his time: The young British aristocrat gave generously to the poor, campaigned to end slavery, and supported American independence. Yet he had curious ideas about women. His perfect wife—and he insisted on perfection—would be attractive, intelligent, and most importantly, submissive to his every whim. Finding no worthy candidates among adult women, he adopted two prepubescent orphans, figuring he could raise one into an ideal mate.

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