The former was first written for her 15-year-old niece, in 1773, but by 1800 it had been through at least 16 editions.
A further 12 editions had appeared by 1829, at least one of them a French translation.
They focused on encouraging rational understanding through the reading of the Bible, history and literature.
The girl addressed was also supposed to study book-keeping, household management and botany, geology, astronomy.
Only sentimental novels were to be avoided.
Mary Wollstonecraft singled it out as one of few examples of the self-improvement genre that deserved praise.

The tide of advice or conduct books in Britain reached its height between 1760 and 1820; one scholar calls the period as "the age of courtesy books for women".
As Nancy Armstrong writes in her seminal Desire and Domestic Fiction (1987): "So popular did these books become that by the second half of the eighteenth century virtually everyone knew the ideal of womanhood they proposed."
Chapone's is a typical example.

Conduct books integrated the styles and rhetoric of earlier genres, such as devotional writings, marriage manuals, recipe books, and works on household economy.
They offered their readers a description most often of the ideal woman, while at the same time handing out practical advice.
Not only did they dictate morality, but they guided readers' choice of dress and outlined what was seen in that period as proper etiquette.
Chapone's work in particular appealed to Wollstonecraft and influenced her composition of Thoughts.
She admired it for its "sustained programme of study for women" and basis on the idea that Christianity should be "the chief instructor of our rational faculties".
and on its emphasis that women should be considered rational beings and not left to wallow in "sensualism".
Wollstonecraft drew on both Chapone and Macaulay's works when she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792.
Another admirer, and also a personal friend, was the novelist and diarist Frances Burney.
Their surviving correspondence includes a letter of condolence of 4 April 1799 from Burney to Chapone, on the death in childbirth of Jane Jeffreyes, née Mulso, the niece to whom the Letters on the Improvement of the Mind had been addressed.
The former was first written for her 15-year-old niece, in 1773, but by 1800 it had been through at least 16 editions. A further 12 editions had appeared by 1829, at least one of them a French translation. They focused on encouraging rational understanding through the reading of the Bible, history and literature. The girl addressed was also supposed to study book-keeping, household management and botany, geology, astronomy. Only sentimental novels were to be avoided. Mary Wollstonecraft singled it out as one of few examples of the self-improvement genre that deserved praise.
The tide of advice or conduct books in Britain reached its height between 1760 and 1820; one scholar calls the period as "the age of courtesy books for women". As Nancy Armstrong writes in her seminal Desire and Domestic Fiction (1987): "So popular did these books become that by the second half of the eighteenth century virtually everyone knew the ideal of womanhood they proposed." Chapone's is a typical example.
Conduct books integrated the styles and rhetoric of earlier genres, such as devotional writings, marriage manuals, recipe books, and works on household economy. They offered their readers a description most often of the ideal woman, while at the same time handing out practical advice. Not only did they dictate morality, but they guided readers' choice of dress and outlined what was seen in that period as proper etiquette. Chapone's work in particular appealed to Wollstonecraft and influenced her composition of Thoughts. She admired it for its "sustained programme of study for women" and basis on the idea that Christianity should be "the chief instructor of our rational faculties". and on its emphasis that women should be considered rational beings and not left to wallow in "sensualism". Wollstonecraft drew on both Chapone and Macaulay's works when she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. Another admirer, and also a personal friend, was the novelist and diarist Frances Burney. Their surviving correspondence includes a letter of condolence of 4 April 1799 from Burney to Chapone, on the death in childbirth of Jane Jeffreyes, née Mulso, the niece to whom the Letters on the Improvement of the Mind had been addressed.
Hester Chapone