Image of Mary Wollstonecraft

Timeline

Lifetime: 1759 - 1797 Passed: ≈ 227 years ago

Title

English Writer, Philosopher

Country/Nationality

England
Wikipedia

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationships at the time, received more attention than her writing. Today Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and her works as important influences.

During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.

After Wollstonecraft's death, her widower published a Memoir (1798) of her life, revealing her unorthodox lifestyle, which inadvertently destroyed her reputation for almost a century. However, with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the twentieth century, Wollstonecraft's advocacy of women's equality and critiques of conventional femininity became increasingly important.

After two ill-fated affairs, with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay (by whom she had a daughter, Fanny Imlay), Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement. Wollstonecraft died at the age of 38 leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts. She died 11 days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelley, who would become an accomplished writer and author of Frankenstein.

Books by Mary Wollstonecraft

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Cover image

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Philosophy Political Science
Treatise Feminism

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792), written by the 18th-century British proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft responds...

Mary: A Fiction Cover image

Mary: A Fiction

Fiction Novel
Culture Heritage

Mary: A Fiction is the only complete novel by 18th-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. It tells the tragic story of a female's successive "romantic friendships" with a woman and a man. Composed while Wollstonecraft was a governess in Irelan...

Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman  Cover image

Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman

Novel
Twentieth Century Women's Rights Fantastique Autobiography Philosophical British

Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman is Mary Wollstonecraft's unfinished novelistic sequel to her revolutionary political treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. It was published posthumously in 1798 by her husband, William Godwin. Maria revolves ar...

Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark Cover image

Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark

Travel
Travelling Explore Philosophical Life Geography Letters

Published in 1796, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark is a personal travel narrative by the eighteenth-century British feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft. The twenty-five letters cover a wide range of topics, fro...

Vindication Of The Rights Of Men, In A Letter To The Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned By His Reflections On The Revolution In France Cover image

Vindication Of The Rights Of Men, In A Letter To The Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned By His Reflections On The Revolution In France

Philosophy Political Science Non-Fiction Essays
Rights Revolution Enlightenment Politics Tradition Progress Rationality Gender Aristocracy Feminism Custom Republicanism

A Vindication of the Rights of Men is a political treatise written by Mary Wollstonecraft in response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. Wollstonecraft argues that all men are created equal and have natural rights to life, lib...

Original Stories from Real Life Cover image

Original Stories from Real Life

Fiction Education Children's Literature
Children's Literature Education Feminism Didactic social commentary Behavior Character development Gender roles Moral guidance Re-education Female role models Feminine virtues

“Original Stories from Real Life” by Mary Wollstonecraft is a didactic children's novel that follows the re-education of two young girls, Mary (15) and Caroline (12), under the guidance of Mrs. Mason. The novel explores themes of appropriate behavior...