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Snapshots in History: September 10: Remembering Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

September 10, 2013 | John P. | Comments (0)






800px-Wollstonecraft2

(Source: Wikipedia – URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wollstonecraft2.JPG  - Plaque of Mary Wollstonecraft at her last residence, The Polygon, where she died in 1797 – Photographer: Ellaroth (Taken on 9 January 2011))

 

On September 10 and beyond, take a moment to remember author, philosopher, and women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft (Born: April 27, 1759; Died: September 10, 1797). Wollstonecraft authored two novels (one complete, one incomplete), treatises, a travel narrative, a historical account of the French Revolution, a book of conduct, and a children’s book. More recently, Mary Wollstonecraft is best known for her polemical, political works A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) ((a response to Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his work Émile that argued for sufficient education for women to facilitate support to rational men) in which she argued that women are not naturally inferior to men but differences could occur, owing to a lack of education. She saw men and women as being rational with reason being the basis for any social order.) and A Vindication of the Rights of Men (written anonymously in 1790 as a response to Edmund Burke’s reflections on the French Revolution that argued for the status quo as human nature could not undertake too much change. Mary Wollstonecraft was already immersed in the milieu of the Enlightenment and its desire for progress.)

Her travel narrative (with elements of an autobiographical memoir), Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796), provided sociological analysis of the Scandinavian countries and their peoples as well as dealing with philosophical questions regarding identity. Initially, Mary Wollstonecraft undertook the journey on behalf of her lover Gilbert Imlay (and the father of her first daughter, Fanny Imlay) to recover a stolen treasure ship. Wollstonecraft hoped that undertaking this mission would help to repair her strained relationship with Imlay. Unfortunately, the relationship remained in ruins and some of the letters by Mary Wollstonecraft reflected her sadness and anger at what she viewed as Imlay’s betrayal. (Wollstonecraft attempted suicide twice.) This work, the last of her writings published during her life, attracted the admiration and attention of William Godwin with whom she was already acquainted. Godwin and Wollstonecraft began a relationship that became passionate over time with Mary expecting another child. Godwin and Wollstonecraft married so that their child (her second child), Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later to become author Mary Shelley of Frankenstein fame), would be born legitimate in societal eyes. Godwin was criticized by some friends for going against his previous advocacy of the abolition of marriage but went ahead anyways with Mary and William residing in adjoining houses for the purpose of retaining some degree of independence. Unfortunately, on August 30, 1797, during the birth of their daughter Mary, the placenta broke apart and infection ensued with Mary Wollstonecraft dying of sepsis on September 10, 1797.

Godwin was devastated at Mary Wollstonecraft’s death; in January 1798, Godwin published his book Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman as a tribute. (Click here to access the eBook version of William Godwin’s work available on Project Gutenberg.) Consider the following titles by and about Mary Wollstonecraft for loan from Toronto Public Library collections:

 

Collected letters of Mary Wollstonecraft / Mary Wollstonecraft; edited by Ralph M. Wardle, 1979. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 921 WOL / 828 WOLLSTONECRAFT

 

 

Letters on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark [online resource] / Mary Wollstonecraft; Project Gutenberg, 2002. eBook. Adult Non-Fiction.

 

 

Letters written during a short residence in Sweden Norway and Denmark

Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark / Mary Wollstonecraft; edited by Tone Brekke and Jon Mee, 2009. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 828.609 WOL

 

 

Mary a fiction and The wrongs of woman or Maria

Mary, a fiction and The wrongs of woman, or, Maria / Mary Wollstonecraft; edited by Michelle Faubert, 2012. Book. Adult Fiction (catalogued as Adult Non-Fiction). 823.6 WOL

 

 

Mary and The wrongs of woman Rev and corrected rev ed

Mary; and, The wrongs of woman [Rev. and corrected., rev. ed.] / Mary Wollstonecraft; edited by Gary Kelly, 2007. Adult Fiction. FICTION WOL

 

 

Maria, or the Wrongs of woman [online resource] / Mary Wollstonecraft / Mary Wollstonecraft; Project Gutenberg, 2006. eBook. Adult Fiction.

 

(In Mary: a fiction (1788), a self-taught, rational heroine was compelled into a loveless marriage for economic reasons but entered into two romantic relationships, one with a man and one with a woman. Maria, or, The Wrongs of Woman (published posthumously in 1798) was intended to be a fictional sequel to her polemic A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The character Maria is imprisoned by her husband in an insane asylum but is befriended by Jemima, who is charged with watching over Maria in the asylum.)

 

 

A most extraordinary pair: Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin [1st ed.]/ Jean Detre, 1975. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 828 GOD DET

 

 

A vindication of the rights of woman an authoritative text backgrounds and contexts criticism 3rd ed

A vindication of the rights of woman: an authoritative text backgrounds and contexts criticism [3rd ed.] / Mary Wollstonecraft; edited by Deidre Shauna Lynch, 2009. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 305.42094 WOL

 

 

 

A vindication of the rights of woman Rev ed

A vindication of the rights of woman [Rev. ed.] / Mary Wollstonecraft, 2004. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 305.42 WOL

 

 

A vindication of the rights of men in a letter to the right honourable Edmund Burke occasioned by his reflections on the revolution in France and  A vindication of the rights of woman with strictures on political and moral subjects

A vindication of the rights of men, in a letter to the right honourable Edmund Burke; occasioned by his reflections on the revolution in France and ; A vindication of the rights of woman with strictures on political and moral subjects / Mary Wollstonecraft; edited by D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf, 1997. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 323 WOL 

 

 

A vindication of the rights of men  with A vindication of the rights of woman and Hints

A vindication of the rights of men; with, A vindication of the rights of woman, and Hints / Mary Wollstonecraft; edited by Sylvana Tomaselli, 1995. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 323 WOL

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