Mary and Maria by Mary Wollstonecraft & Matilda by Mary Shelley (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Wollstonecraft, Mary; Shelley, Mary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140433716 ISBN 13: 9780140433715

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1993

Synopsis

These three works of fiction - two by Mary Wollstonecraft, the radical author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and one by her daughter Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein - are powerfully emotive stories that combine passion with forceful feminist argument. In Mary Wollstonecraft's Mary, the heroine flees her young husband in order to nurse her dearest friend, Ann, and finds genuine love, while Maria tells of a desperate young woman who seeks consolation in the arms of another man after the loss of her child. And Mary Shelley's Matilda - suppressed for over a century - tells the story of a woman alienated from society by the incestuous passion of her father. Humane, compassionate and highly controversial, these stories demonstrate the strongly original genius of their authors.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This volume for the first time brings together three extraordinary works of fiction by Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), generally recognized as the mother of the feminist movement, and her daughter, Mary Shelley (1797-1851), author of Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft's first novel, Mary (1788), an exploration of an alienated intellectual woman and her struggle against the constraints of a claustrophobic feminine world, was followed by her Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The posthumously published Maria moves from Wollstonecraft's own experiences to examine the miseries of women of all classes. Matilda (1819), Shelley's second novel, remained unpublished during her lifetime (1797-1851). Its theme of a father's incestuous desire for his daughter was considered provocative and scandalous. Her father, William Godwin, refused to publish it and it remained suppressed for over a century. Janet Todd's introduction links the novels of mother and daughter by their double exploration of self-representation, sexuality, and personal conflict.

About the Author

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) was an educational, political and feminist writer who early in her life worked as a companion, teacher and governess. In 1788 she settled in London as a translator and reader for the publisher Joseph Johnson, becoming part of the radical set that included Paine, Blake, Godwin and the painter Fuseli. Her great work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was published in 1792. She lived in Paris during the French Revolution and had a child by the American Gilbert Imlay, who deserted her. She returned to London in 1795 and, following her attempted suicide, became involved with Godwin, whom she married in 1797, shortly before the birth (which proved fatal) of her daughter, the future Mary Shelley. She left several unfinished works, including Maria.

Janet Todd is Francis Hutcheson Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow and an honorary fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.

Janet Todd is Francis Hutcheson Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow and an honorary fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0140433716
• ISBN 13: 9780140433715
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Todd Janet