The Parliaments of Women

"Mr. Redruth begs the society's pardon, but he is not a magician at all... It is his daughter who is the magician. He has one son and three daughters and he says that they are all magicians. The others...[prefer] to pursue their studies privately at home without distractions.""Miss Redruth, the young lady in the red velvet gown, was one of the first to speak. Her voice was low and rather hurried. She was not used to speaking in public and not all of the magicians caught her words, but her delivery was very passionate... Magic would be freed from the shackles that Gilbert Norrell had placed upon it!""From the Duke of Roxburghe's library: 'The Parliament of Women' was an allegorical sixteenth-century description of the wisdom and magic that belongs particularly to women."If men are engaged in the newly fashionable practice of English Magic, what place for women?