Parnet (Max)
Woman: Her Health & Beauty.
Daily Exercises. With 54 Photographs from Life; Diagrams...
Description:
FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, poor quality paper a little toned, a few spots towards close, the odd light handling mark, the half-title with a gift inscription ('To Olga...'),
pp. 145, [3, ads], foolscap 8vo,
original red cloth, lettered in black to backstrip and upper board, a couple of small knocks to backstrip, a little faded and rubbed with a small waterstain to upper board, light spotting to top edge, good
Publication Details:
John Long, 1919
Notes: A 'system of rational gymnastics' developed by the French 'Lauréat de l'Acadèmie des Sports', redressing (he states in his Introduction) the preponderance of such things for men, when women have a perhaps greater need - partly on account of their 'structure and internal constitution more delicate', but also for their 'deplorable tendency to ignore physical exercises'. Parnet's book was originally published before the War, but the present edition, scarcer than its French counterpart, follows soon after the conflict, which possibly changed its emphasis, rather - and makes some of its pronounc...moreA 'system of rational gymnastics' developed by the French 'Lauréat de l'Acadèmie des Sports', redressing (he states in his Introduction) the preponderance of such things for men, when women have a perhaps greater need - partly on account of their 'structure and internal constitution more delicate', but also for their 'deplorable tendency to ignore physical exercises'. Parnet's book was originally published before the War, but the present edition, scarcer than its French counterpart, follows soon after the conflict, which possibly changed its emphasis, rather - and makes some of its pronouncements ('the primary rôle of a woman' being 'maternity', or the need to moderate obedience to the deleterious effects of the 'sacred fashion' for 'the high heel and the corset', for example) seem rather outdated, when the physical readiness of the female population had been put to rather different demands in the intervening period. As the author himself puts it on p. 19, 'It is a service to the country and to humanity to make women understand the importance of physical culture, of which health is the principal aim'. The title-page refers to a folding chart that is not present here - it presumably provided in a different format the same illustrations as the plates, a woman in a leotard demonstrating the various poses with outlines for movement that occasionally give a 'Vitruvian Man' effect. HIDE
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Price: £350
Subject: Sciences
Published Date: 1919
Stock Number: 73201
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