diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/__init__.py b/src/calibre/gui2/__init__.py
index 7eedab5d0e..3b7ddc309d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/__init__.py
@@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ defs['cover_grid_show_title'] = False
 defs['cover_grid_texture'] = None
 defs['show_vl_tabs'] = False
 defs['show_highlight_toggle_button'] = False
+defs['add_comments_to_email'] = False
 del defs
 # }}}
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/email.py b/src/calibre/gui2/email.py
index 57ffebefe0..4d4859dab0 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/email.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/email.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ __license__   = 'GPL v3'
 __copyright__ = '2010, Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>'
 __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 
-import os, socket, time
+import os, socket, time, textwrap
 from binascii import unhexlify
 from functools import partial
 from threading import Thread
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ from calibre.utils.filenames import ascii_filename
 from calibre.customize.ui import available_input_formats, available_output_formats
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata import authors_to_string
 from calibre.constants import preferred_encoding
-from calibre.gui2 import config, Dispatcher, warning_dialog, error_dialog
+from calibre.gui2 import config, Dispatcher, warning_dialog, error_dialog, gprefs
 from calibre.library.save_to_disk import get_components
 from calibre.utils.config import tweaks, prefs
 from calibre.utils.icu import sort_key
@@ -382,6 +382,9 @@ class EmailMixin(object):  # {{{
                         '\n\n' + t + '\n\t' + _('by') + ' ' + a + '\n\n' +
                         _('in the %s format.') %
                         os.path.splitext(f)[1][1:].upper())
+                if mi.comments and gprefs['add_comments_to_email']:
+                    from calibre.utils.html2text import html2text
+                    texts[-1] += '\n\n' + _('About this book:') + '\n\n' + textwrap.fill(html2text(mi.comments))
                 prefix = ascii_filename(t+' - '+a)
                 if not isinstance(prefix, unicode):
                     prefix = prefix.decode(preferred_encoding, 'replace')
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/preferences/email.ui b/src/calibre/gui2/preferences/email.ui
index 2ffeb756d9..3ed95d0f66 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/preferences/email.ui
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/preferences/email.ui
@@ -92,6 +92,18 @@
      </item>
     </layout>
    </item>
+   <item>
+    <widget class="QCheckBox" name="opt_add_comments_to_email">
+     <property name="toolTip">
+      <string>Add the comments from the book metadata to the email.
+Useful to allow the recipient to see a summary of the
+book before opening it.</string>
+     </property>
+     <property name="text">
+      <string>Add &amp;comments metadata as text to the email</string>
+     </property>
+    </widget>
+   </item>
    <item>
     <widget class="SendEmail" name="send_email_widget" native="true"/>
    </item>
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/preferences/emailp.py b/src/calibre/gui2/preferences/emailp.py
index e94cfe4656..03d803509c 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/preferences/emailp.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/preferences/emailp.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ from calibre.gui2.preferences import ConfigWidgetBase, test_widget, \
         AbortCommit
 from calibre.gui2.preferences.email_ui import Ui_Form
 from calibre.utils.config import ConfigProxy
-from calibre.gui2 import NONE
+from calibre.gui2 import NONE, gprefs
 from calibre.utils.smtp import config as smtp_prefs
 
 class EmailAccounts(QAbstractTableModel):  # {{{
@@ -163,6 +163,8 @@ class ConfigWidget(ConfigWidgetBase, Ui_Form):
     def genesis(self, gui):
         self.gui = gui
         self.proxy = ConfigProxy(smtp_prefs())
+        r = self.register
+        r('add_comments_to_email', gprefs)
 
         self.send_email_widget.initialize(self.preferred_to_address)
         self.send_email_widget.changed_signal.connect(self.changed_signal.emit)