Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Maria - The Female Caleb Williams
"Maria" is an unfinished novel which Wollstonecraft intended todisplay the cruelty, injustice, and utter lack of personal freedom of womenin the late 18th century.Drawing on sources from Rousseau, to her husbandWilliam Godwin's "Political Justice" and "CalebWilliams," to her own "Vindication of the Rights of Woman,"Wollstonecraft sets up a scenario in which a woman falls prey to themaddening strictures of law.Although it may not initially appear so,"Maria" is very much in the strain of gothic literature. Wollstonecraft takes pains to illustrate that the gothic need not beenacted in castles or by demons, but can be just as horrifying, if not moreso, when 'normal' society proves to be an intractable villain itself.

The novel reads like a philosophical treatise, the main action beinglife stories told by the primary characters, Maria, her mad-house wardenJemima, and her unlikely lover, Henry Darnford, including their digressiverunning commentaries.As the novel begins, Maria is in the mad-house,deprived of her infant daughter by her greedy husband, George Venables,whom she despises.

As in Godwin's "Caleb Williams,"Wollstonecraft does not scruple to pile severe mental anguish upon clearinjustices to drive home her points regarding society's treatment of women. Her most vicious attacks are reserved for the law and surprisingly, forwomen.The law preserves a basis for treating women as perpetual minors,and unfortunately, women, realizing their powerlessness, too often resignthemselves to their lot.

Though fragmentary and incomplete,"Maria" has the same kind of power as "Caleb Williams,"and the two should be read together for maximum effect.The force ofWollstonecraft's writing comes from the fact that her observations werejust, and that she dared to voice them on behalf of all women. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is one of the true pioneers in the literature of women's rights.Not only was she the mother of Mary Shelley, author of the gothic horror classic, "Frankenstein", Godwin was a prolific writer and a unique voice for her era.

This newly published bibliography is a second, expanded and corrected edition and includes not only her works and translations, but all known works about Mrs. Godwin and a chronology of her life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

read Professor Sherwood's - " Vindication -a Novel"
In my opinion a better conceptualization Of Mary Wollstonecraft's
Life, Ideas, and Experinences is author: Frances Sherwood
Tile: Vindication.

However the Gordon book is an adequate read

A frustrating biography
While I respect Gordon's decision to stick closely to journals and letters in writing her biography of Mary Wollstonecraft, I wondered why she offered so little in the way of the broader political world Mary was a part of it in the late 18th century, especial since she responded to it in her writings.The author offers little in regard to the meetings that were most intriguing, like the dinner parties hosted by her publisher, Joseph Johnson, that included leading revolutionary figures like Thomas Paine and her eventual husband, William Godwin.Gordon does talk about the revolutionary ferment in Britain at the time, but doesn't expand it into a broader discussion on how Mary's writings reflected these concerns, and how she managed to effectively escape censure, unlike Thomas Paine, who found himself being tried for sedition in absentia. What we get is a set of very intriguing stories, such as her long affair with Gilbert Imlay that took her to France and Scandinavia, that wet one's appetite but fails to satisfies one interest in her as a revolutionary figure.

Mary Wollstonecraft reached a broad audience with her writings, in particular A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which was in response to the new French government's Rights of Man.She, like other women who were part of the revolution, felt left out when the new government essentially turned its back on the rights of women.Mary avoided house arrest by secretly marrying Gilbert Imlay, an American in Paris.Gordon sets up many of the situations that befell Mary in Paris and her frustrating relationship with Imlay that came for nought after a long voyage to Scandinavia trying to recover his losses in regard to an ill-fated shipping venture.As with her brothers and sisters, Mary felt a strong responsibility to the man she loved, but this feeling was never fully reciprocated.

Gordon shows in detail how Mary had to deal with the paternalistic world of the late 18th century, from her good-for-nothing father, to her miserly elder brother, and the varoious relationships of her friends and family.All this is well and good, but Mary was a political writer, and we get so little of her actual thoughts on government, which were the focus of her many writings.

After all, Mary was one of the early suffragettes, and her writings form the cornerstone of feminist writings in the 19th century. Gordon alludes to Jane Austin and Virginia Woolf and other writers she felt were influenced by Mary in one way or another. Gordon had a pension for comparing Mary's real life to the fictional lives Austin had created in her novels. Time and time again, we read about what Mary suffered through, lending emotional weight to her writings, but there wasn't any real attempt to probe the intellectual origins of these writings. Mary may have saw herself as a new genus of woman, but her writings didn't come out of an intellectual void, and that is what is missing in this biography.

Disappointing account of a great life
This book is not the place to begin if you are not already convinced of Mary Wollstonecraft's genius. I began reading to find the author referring to Wollstonecraft as a genius without any preface for this claim. I was immediately thrown out of the narrative by this assumption. The author describes each of the books that Wollstonecraft wrote without bothering to asses their merit for the reader, are we to take for granted that they were great literary works? I found this lack of any sort of judgment of the subject strange. The book similarly failed to engage me in the narrative. The author leaves her subject for long discussions of the history of the family that she was a governess for. This subject did not have enough baring on Wollstonecraft's life to make it worth including. That such a unique and groundbreaking woman should have her life reduced to so dull a narrative, with so many assumption about her life disappointed me. The book itself failed to hold my interest.

Vindication
This is a beautifully written biography about a fascinating woman. While she was a serious thinker in advance of her times, her life was of the stuff that would make a good romantic novel. The backdrop is not only England and Ireland, but the French Revolution and includes the machinations of various representatives of the fledgling United States stationed in Europe. No less interesting are the chapters on the women who were her biologic and ideological heirs including her second daughter who married Shelley and wrote Frankenstein.

A Revolutionary Life
It was the philosopher Hegel who first saw the enigmatic significnce of the generation of the French Revolution, calling it a birth time. Something new was coming into existence, something more than the failed revolutions that rode the tide. For reasons that almost demand the insights of the philosophy of history, that generation was one of the most innovative in world history, and the case of Mary Wollstonecraft is a perfect example of the sudden appearance of a creative individual steeping into history to break the frozen mould of mechanical culture. Thus, almost two centuries before its time, we see the prophetic birth of feminism and the gestating protest against the place of women in society. This short biography is an excellent snapshot of someone appearing as if from nowhere, not unlike Thomas Paine, to proclaim the new age of women. The portrait of the life of Wollstonecraft, from the early sufferings and explotations in a patriarchal family, to her involvement as an oberver of the French Revolution, concluding with her brief life with Godwin(and this account concludes with some material on her later descendants) is crisply told, and leaves one wondering at the symphony of effects that so suddenly gave birth to modern freedoms. We see that while feminism seems to exist currently in a postmodern context, its primordial onset is deeply braided with the dawn of modernity. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Diane Jacobs's exemplary popular biography makes pioneering 18th-century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) a vivid character for contemporary readers. Much more sympathetic than Janet Todd was in her book Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life, Jacobs acknowledges Wollstonecraft's extravagantly emotional nature and wearying demands on loved ones, yet roots her shortcomings in frustration provoked by a society blatantly unjust toward women. Mary had to educate herself while her brothers attended the local grammar school; she cared for her dying mother while her farther seduced a younger woman; her sister could escape a bad marriage only by leaving behind a baby. The intelligent, unconventional Wollstonecraft's choice of occupations was limited to governess, paid companion, or schoolteacher, all of which she tried and detested.

No wonder she felt most at home with London radicals fired by the promise of the French Revolution, including publisher Joseph Johnson, who encouraged her early writing and in 1792 issued her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Jacobs does a nice job of conveying the scandalous impact of Wollstonecraft's then unprecedented insistence on economic and intellectual equality for women, and she evokes with similar immediacy the fervent atmosphere of revolutionary France, where Wollstonecraft fell in love with American Gilbert Imlay and bore his child. Imlay's desertion prompted two suicide attempts, but the perennially depressive Wollstonecraft found solace in England with philosopher William Godwin before dying of childbed fever after giving birth to a daughter, also named Mary, who would later run off with married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. In a narrative notable for its lively prose, dramatic punch, and positive assessment of the tempestuous Wollstonecraft, it's characteristic that Jacobs closes, not with her tragic death, but 19 years later as Mary Shelley began to write Frankenstein and "the revolution continued." --Wendy Smith Book Description

Pioneering eighteenth-century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft lived a life as radical as her vision of a fairer world. She overcame great disadvantages -- poverty (her abusive, sybaritic father squandered the family fortune), a frivolous education, and the stigma of being unmarried in a man's world.

Her life changed when Thomas Paine's publisher, Joseph Johnson, determined to make her a writer. Wollstonecraft's great feminist document, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which brought her fame throughout Europe, insisted that women reap all the new liberties men were celebrating since the fall of the Bastille in France.

Wollstonecraft lived as fully as a man would, socializing with the great painters, poets, and revolutionaries of her era. She traveled to Paris during the French Revolution; fell in love with Gilbert Imlay, a fickle American; and, unmarried, openly bore their daughter, Fanny. Wollstonecraft at last found domestic peace with the philosopher William Godwin but died giving birth to their daughter, Mary, who married Percy Bysshe Shelley, wrote the classic Frankenstein, and carried on her mother's bold ideas. Wollstonecraft's first child, Fanny, suffered a more tragic fate.

This definitive biography of Mary Wollstonecraft gives a balanced, thorough, freshly sympathetic view. Diane Jacobs also continues Wollstonecraft's story by concluding with those of her daughters. Her Own Woman is distinguished by the author's use of new first sources, among which are Joseph Johnson's letters, discovered by an heir in the late 1990s, and rare letters referring to Wollstonecraft's lover Gilbert Imlay. Jacobs has written an absorbing narrative that is essential to understanding Mary Wollstonecraft's life and the importance it has had on women throughout history.Download Description
Mary Wollstonecraft was entirely self-taught. She overcame all the disadvantages that she inherited -- poverty (her abusive, sybaritic father squandered the family fortune), the frivolous education girls were provided, and the narrow career choices they were limited to.Mary's life changed when Thomas Paine's publisher Joseph Johnson set out to make her a writer. Her great feminist document, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which brought her fame throughout Europe, insisted that women reap all the new liberties men were celebrating since the fall of the Bastille in France. Wollstonecraft lived as fully as a man would, socializing with the great painters, poets, and revolutionaries of her era. She traveled to Paris during the French Revolution and openly bore the child of an American who deserted her. Wollstonecraft found domestic peace with the philosopher William Godwin but died giving birth to their daughter, Mary, who married Percy Bysshe Shelley, wrote the classic Frankenstein, and carried on her mother's bold ideas.Her Own Woman is distinguished by the author's use of new first sources, among which are Joseph Johnson's letters, discovered by an heir in the late nineties, and rare letters referring to Wollstonecraft's lover, Gilbert Imlay. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Fascinating Look At A Fascinating Woman
If you are familar with Mary Shelley(or her classic book "Frankenstein") This extremely researched and well-written biography introduces you to her mother,Mary Wollenstonecraft(Godwin) A lady who was truly before her time(the late 1700's). The daughter of an abusive father and indiffrent mother,her brilliant mind enabled her to write the classic treatise "Vindication Of The Rights Of Women" while only in her 20's. She also journeyed to France and witnessed The French Revolution in all it's g(l)ory,had several passionate love affairs,one which produced a child though the father had no intention of leaving his wife and marrying her, making her a single working mother long before it was either fashionable or accepted. She married William Godwin ,(the father of the future Mary Shelley) and tragically died from complications of herchildbirth at 38. Although Ms. Wollenstonecraft's life was short,it was well-lived and makes for fascinating reading that the author(Diane Jacobs) vividly brings to life with both immediacy and wit. An empowering book for woman as well as an engrossing bio for both sexes..

An extraordinary work!
I had the great pleasure of reading and using Diane Jacobs' "Her Own Woman: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft" while researching and writing my recent biography, "Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy (Corinthian Books, 2002).Vice President Aaron Burr, for all his flaws, was the first prominent American man to enthusiastically embrace and publicly endorse Wollstonectaft's radical feminist views on the equal education of women.He used her principles to give his teenage daughter, Theodosia, a "man's education" which would equip her for the three roles in life he envisioned for her: queen, president, or empress.I found Ms. Jacobs' work extremely insightful and enormously useful in understanding this woman who many cite as one of the first mothers of feminism. -- Richard N. Côté

Beautifully written, always fascinating.
Diane Jacobs has taken the intriguing, and sometimes tragic story of Mary Wollstonecraft and turned out a riveting account of a true pioneer. Fresh and readable, the book makes use of previously unknown sources to provide a new perspective on someone who's life was even more dramatic than her important writings. Far and away the best book on Wollstonecraft. Truely enjoyable and highly recommended. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Highly recommended for Mary Wollstonecraft enthusiasts.
In Mary Wollstonecraft And The Language Of Sensibility, Syndy Conger examines the life and work of a major nineteenth female literary talent whose influence continues to be felt in literature down to the present day.Part One: First Fictions of Sensibility is comprised of EpistolaryRevelations; Mary, A Fiction; "Cave of Fancy"; Early Thoughts onEducation. Part Two: The Test of Reason presents The Fictions ofSensibility under Analysis; Private and Public Revolutions: Burke asCatalyst; The Rights of Woman and the Wrongs of Sensibility. Part Three:Affirmation and Transformation offers The Test of the Revolution; A NewPage in the History of Her Heart; One Last Fiction: Sensibility Imprisoned;and Conclusion: An Ending Without a Resolution. Enhanced with a list ofabbreviations, notes, works cited, and a comprehensive index, MaryWollstonecraft And The Language Of Sensibility is a "must" forMary Wollstonecraft enthusiasts and students of her work. ... Read more

Book Description
The author and feminist was in the truest sense a "liberated woman." Falling in love with Gilbert Imlay in Paris in 1793, she defied 18th century convention to live with him for two years and bear him a daughter. These letters, written to him over the course of those two years, represent the outpourings of a woman deeply in love, and give the modern reader an insight into the personality of this important writer and crusader.

THIS TITLE IS CITED AND RECOMMENDED BY:Cambridge Bibliography of English, ... Read more

Book Description
This sourcebook provides the first interdisciplinary guide to the founding text of modern feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.Inaddition to closely annotated key passages of the landmark treatise, this sourcebook also contains letters by Wollstonecraft and her most influential contemporaries, nineteenth-century responses on specific aspects of the text, including slavery, sexuality, religion and sensibility, a contextual chronology, an annotated reading list and substantial introductory materials.This essential guide not only contributes to the understanding of Wollstonecraft's role in the development of the women's movement, but also allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of British literature and politics at the turn of the nineteenth-century, of Romanticism and of the origins of feminism. ... Read more

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First Feminist
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities.Wollstonecraft is not easy to read however, she makes a compelling argument.Mary Wollstonecraft viewed the institution of marriage simply as legal prostitution.She believed this to be the case for several reasons.First, the marriage laws in Britain at the time gave men legal rights over their wives including their property.The law also gave men custody of their children in event of divorce, and a woman could not even obtain a divorce without their husband's consent.For women divorce meant having to leave everything of importance in their lives behind.Thus, Wollstonecraft observed that Britain's laws left women in the unenviable position of being treated as mere chattel by their husbands.Second, Wollstonecraft argued that women's downtrodden position in society was not the cause of religious or moral teachings.She was emphatic in her assessment that it was women's denial of the same educational opportunities that men received that made them seem weak and inferior to men.Finally, she believed marriage only chained women to a life of drudgery in the home.

Armed with this information, Wollstonecraft set out to propose in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women the idea, that equal education for women was the only remedy for this grave injustice perpetrated against them, and education for women would actually strengthen the institution of marriage.She made several prescient arguments to support this idea.First, Wollstonecraft believed schoolchildren needed the contact and interaction with other schoolchildren to develop properly.So, she argued against Britain's system of elitist education, especially its private schools and boarding schools.She advocated for the creation of national public schools, funded by the state, and attended by children from the entire socio-economic strata.Second, she thought it was imperative that both boys and girls must be educated together.The reason Wollstonecraft believed in coeducation, was that when both boys and girls get to know one another from an early age they would in turn, build friendships, and learn to respect one another.Therefore, when women get married, they will be able to serve as companions to their husbands and not just as trophy wives or sexual objects."Nay, marriage will never be held sacred till women, by being brought up with men, are prepared to be their companions rather than their mistresses."Third, Wollstonecraft asked the question, how society could expect mothers to rear healthy boys capable of functioning as confident and productive men in society if their mothers, who raised them, were uneducated.She was horrified to think of the damage already done to children by uneducated, weak-minded mothers.Wollstonecraft articulates in beautiful fashion her argument for the need to educate women in the following quote."If marriage be the cement of society, mankind should all be educated after the same model, or the intercourse of the sexes will never deserve the name of fellowship, nor will women ever fulfill the peculiar duties of their sex."This argument only enhances women's roles as wives and mothers.Finally, Wollstonecraft argued that the implementation of her educational reforms would prove to be a key element leading to the improvement of the institution of marriage in particular, and for family life in general."Contending for the rights of women, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue."

Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and feminism.

... Read more

Book Description
In the two centuries since Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), she has become western feminism's leading icon, a stature that has obscured her actual historic significance.Examining in detail Wollstonecraft's writings, Barbara Taylor provides an alternative reading of her as a writer steeped in the utopianism of Britain's radical Enlightenment.Her feminist principles are shown to have arisen within a revolutionary program for universal equality and moral perfection that reached its zenith during the political upheavals of the 1790s but had its roots in the radical-Protestant Enlightenment. Locating Wollstonecraft within her literary and political milieus, and tracing the relationship between her feminist radicalism and her troubled personal history, the book draws a compelling portrait of this fascinating and profoundly influential thinker. Barbara Taylor, a reader in History in the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of East London, is an intellectual and cultural historian specializing in the history of feminism from 1750-1850.Her first book, Eve and the New Jerusalem: Socialism and Feminism in the Nineteenth Century (Pantheon, 1983) is a study of the feminist dimension of British Utopian Socialism.It was published to widespread acclaim and she has been awarded many research grants, including fellowships from the Leverhulme Trust, the Nuffield Foundation, the British Academy and the Guggenheim Foundation. ... Read more