{"product_id":"9781782272472","title":"The Gentlewoman's Book of Sports","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt was not easy to be a sportswoman at the end of the nineteenth century. Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, said in 1896: \"No matter how toughened a sportswoman may be, her organism is not cut out to sustain certain shocks.\" Women competed in the Olympics for the first time in 1900.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe \"white sailor hats\" and the \"confu- sion between you, your hat, and the ball\" in Lady Greville's book may now seem charmingly old-fashioned—until we remember that in 2015, more than a century later, more than 40% of elite sportswomen in Britain were reported to have suffered sexism. Which suddenly makes the bold gentlewomen of 1892 seem far more pioneering...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe books in \"Found on the Shelves\" have been chosen to give a fascinating insight into the treasures that can be found while browsing in The London Library. Now celebrating its 175th anniversary, with over seventeen miles of shelving and more than a million books, The London Library has become an unrivalled archive of the modes, manners and thoughts of each generation which has helped to form it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom essays on dieting in the 1860s to instructions for gentlewomen on trout-fishing, from advice on the ill health caused by the \"modern\" craze of bicycling to travelogues from Norway, they are as readable and relevant today as they were more than a century ago - even if contemporary sportswomen no longer have to \"thank Providence and one's tailor for one's knickerbockers\"!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Steerforth Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47058065883376,"sku":"9781782272472","price":10.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781782272472_p0.jpg?v=1763720390","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781782272472","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}