A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent [sic] is a 1762 utopian novel by Sarah Scott, originally published anonymously under the moniker "A Gentleman on his Travels."

It describes a secluded utopian community of women which embodies mid-eighteenth century bluestocking ideals that sought to reform cultural and economic aspects of British society at large.

[1] The text is narrated by a former Jamaican planter traveling to the countryside of Cornwall, who comes upon the community of women with his young, rakish companion, Lamont.

Much of the text is spent recounting the design of the community and the personal histories of the women who come to live at the manor the narrator calls Millenium Hall.

Each has a different story involving disillusionment with their roles in the patriarchy, eventually leading them to divest from it altogether and find a haven of female friendship on the grounds of the estate.

Mrs. Selvyn is first described by the narrator as having “features that are too irregular to be handsome, but there is a sensibility and delicacy in her countenance which render her extremely engaging; and her person is elegant”.

Mrs. Selvyn eventually tells Lord Peyton that she cannot be his wife, saying “...how could I support being hourly exposed to the sight of a man, whose eyes would always seem to reproach me!”[6] She stays unmarried for the duration of the novel.

Mrs. Trentham was very beautiful both externally and “mentally”, which got her the attention of strangers; “she was innocence and simplicity itself”; and was ultimately disliked by others due to their envy for her.

Lady Mary Jones is first described by the narrator as “...exquisitely genteel, and her voice, in common speech, enchantingly melodious”.

He wants to “see her educated in all accomplishments proper for a young person of fashion and fortune”,[6] so he sends her to a French boarding school (as opposed to letting her stay with him).

His relationship with Louisa becomes predatory; “That as he was easily captivated, so he was soon tired; and seldom kept a woman long after he had obtained the free possession of her...”[6] He dies of apoplexy before the events of the novel.

This clearly has a negative effect on her: “...the distress and sorrow which were impressed on her countenance, at an age generally too volatile and thoughtless to be deeply affected...”.

[6] Lady Melvyn helps house Louisa Mancel after she is rejected from the French boarding school due to a lack of vacancy.

In Millenium Hall, the women all belong to upper class gentries, relaying the belief that they have power and authority over themselves as opposed to the patriarchy.

Scholars suggest Scott fell on the side of the debate which held that humanity is moral by nature and that the path to happiness could be "achieved through prudent, benevolent action, and appropriate love of God's creatures.

Bluestocking feminism was a movement that enabled women of upper-class status to gather in informal settings and speak about topics with more depth than they normally would be afforded.

Yet women were expected to be the face of domesticity: they had to bring up the children and educate them in their early years, which seemed incongruent with the vision they had to fulfill of being subordinate.

[8] Bluestocking feminism critiqued and questioned this; it asked why women had to be perfectly domestic, raise her children mostly alone, and be financially (and oftentimes emotionally) dominated by her husband.

So, upper- and middle-class women would sit in informal settings and talk about different literary and cultural topics, therefore feminizing the “masculine” conversation, which would typically only involve men as the interlocutors.

Much of the female characters are highly educated, and they are able and willing to discuss difficult topics with George Ellison and Mr. Lamont, like class and gender.

The women also break from the expectation that they are to be financially dependent upon any man: They pool their funds and gather donations so they can rely on their own finances to run the Hall.

Significant novels of the time included Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.

Romanticism in literature and culture was gaining traction, where inspiration and emotions were being drawn on to further one's thinking, a theme in Millenium Hall.

[5] Other “novels of sensibility,” like Millenium Hall, had philanthropic themes within them, but the result of the philanthropy was always to help “victimized single women” find husbands.

[5] Women like them can thrive and live a meaningful life without fulfilling the role of being a wife and/or a mother, and they can actively reject these labels of being “old” or “fallen” through engaging in the traditionally masculine realm of philanthropy.

[10] For example, Sir Edward Lambton is a very virtuous character: he is good looking and very kind (despite his insistence of marrying Louisa Mancel); he is the perfect man.

The book takes the form of a frame tale and a series of adventures, as the narrator's long-lost cousin relates how each of the residents arrived at the female utopia, Millenium Hall.

The adventures are remarkable for their reliance on a nearly superstitious form of divine grace, where God's will manifests itself with the direct punishment of the wicked and the miraculous protection of the innocent.

Sarah Scott's novel is not primarily interested in character (as Samuel Richardson's had been or Frances Burney's would be) or social act (as Henry Fielding's had been) or entertainment (as Aphra Behn's had been).

As the subtitle to the novel says, it contains "Anecdotes and Reflections as May excite in the Reader proper Sentiments of Humanity, and lead the Mind to the Love of VIRTUE," with 'virtue' being understood in its masculine (virtus) and feminine (virginity) senses.