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 tounderstanding Mary Wollstonecraft's life and the importance it has had on women throughout history.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
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
Diane Jacobs is the author of Christmas in July: The Life and Art of Preston Sturges, published by the University of California Press. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Village Voice. She lives in New York with her daughter.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
US$ 6.44
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR003954545
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Paperback. Condition: Good. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR004258652
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: AwesomeBooks, Wallingford, United Kingdom
Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. . Seller Inventory # 7719-9780349114613
Quantity: 3 available
Seller: Bahamut Media, Reading, United Kingdom
Condition: Very Good. Shipped within 24 hours from our UK warehouse. Clean, undamaged book with no damage to pages and minimal wear to the cover. Spine still tight, in very good condition. Remember if you are not happy, you are covered by our 100% money back guarantee. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780349114613
Quantity: 3 available
Seller: Better World Books Ltd, Dunfermline, United Kingdom
Condition: Very Good. Ships from the UK. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. Seller Inventory # 39066277-20
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: The Book Box, Beccles, NORWI, United Kingdom
Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. Red pictoral cover with very minor bumping to corners. Previous bookseller's sticker on front, otherwise clean and tight. The story of Mary Wollstonecraft, feminist and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Seller Inventory # ABE-1659962074587
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: madelyns books, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Paperback. Condition: Used: Very Good. very good clean copy . .sent next working day or sooner from the u/k 1st class. Carefully wrapped in bubble 0.0. Seller Inventory # 1015IF8ZEP4
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Re-Read Ltd, Doncaster, United Kingdom
paperback. Condition: Fair. Wear present.Discolouration present.Fold creasing present.Foxing.Scruff marks and small marks present on the front cover and back cover.Scruff mark present at the sides of pages.Small mark present on a few pages. Tearing present.Dent marks present on the front and back cover.Scruff mark present on a few of the pages.Personal address sticker present on the front of the first page. Seller Inventory # E0203514
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Amazing Book Company, Liphook, United Kingdom
Trade Paperback. Condition: Mint. First Edition. This copy is in mint, unread condition, bright, white, tight and square, in illustrated card covers as issued. One of the most controversial figures of her day, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) is perhaps best known for her "Vindication of the Rights of Woman" - her plea for female independence borne out of intense and bitter personal experience. Diane Jacobs' biography narrates how, from an early age, Mary had rebelled against male authority: witnessing her mother's suffering, and the death in childbirth of her close friend Fanny Blood, she had asserted "I do not wish them (women) to have power over men, but over themselves". Mary's early escape from her home, and her employment as governess, enabled her to enjoy a successful literary career: she befriended many of the leading radicals of the day and, like them, was inspired by the impending French Revolution, travelling to Paris to witness the Terror. She produced an illegitimate daughter and married William Godwin before dying after the birth of her second daughter (Mary Shelley). To most contemporaries her ideas on personal freedom were shocking. Yet at the heart of this inspirational woman was a life of emotional and intellectual complexity. Ref SS7. Seller Inventory # 016099
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Naomi Symes Books PBFA, Warrington, Cheshire, United Kingdom
Paperback. Very good. 333pp. Seller Inventory # A14655
Quantity: 1 available