The Lady's Country Companion; or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1845. First edition. Original publisher's cloth binding stamped in blind with gilt to spine. Yellow endpapers. Measuring 170 x 100mm and collating complete with 17 engravings and publisher's catalogue to rear: xi, [1, blank], 396, 32. A Near Fine example, with light sunning to spine and upper front corner; corners gently bumped and front hinge the slightest bit tender. Bookseller's ticket to lower front pastedown and bookplate of Peter Stewart Young to upper front pastedown; binder's ticket to rear pastedown. Internally fresh and unmarked. A scarce example of Jane Loudon's practical advice to women who find themselves living in the countryside, OCLC reports 6 copies in U.S. libraries. It has not appeared at auction, and the present is the only example in trade.

Like many women of her era, Jane Loudon's domestic life was shaped in outsized ways by the career and economic decisions of her husband. Speaking to these sisters, she compiled "the present work, which is the only one I have ever written with any reference to farming...principally for the use of ladies who have been brought up in a town but who from circumstances have been induced to reside in the country...Having lived in the country myself, I know both the inconveniences and enjoyments...in the following pages I have endeavored to save my readers the pain of buying their own experience." Across the book, Loudon does not only address the kinds of loneliness and monotony women might encounter when separated from the kind of feminine company available in town. She also gives practical input on the real work of the countryside so that women do not solely rely on men: advice on building fires for warmth, on laying out functional kitchen gardens and managing fruit trees, on maintaining hens, horses, and stock pond fish, and even on attiring oneself appropriately for cold weather, long rides, and rambling walks. Notably, her words are delivered in an epistolary format as she converses with a woman named Anne -- and it is a stylistic choice that further assists her readers in assuaging feelings of isolation and feeling connected to other women in similar circumstances.