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 ... & Irish History, 17th & 18th Centuries) - Softcover

Wollstonecraft, Mary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 110801884X ISBN 13: 9781108018845

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) published A Vindication of the Rights of Men anonymously in 1790. The pamphlet sold out within three weeks to great acclaim, though later editions published under her own name met with notable opprobrium. It was the first of many printed responses to Edmund Burke's conservative attacks on the French Revolution, and it marked Wollstonecraft's entry into the intellectual arena of the late eighteenth century. She attacked hereditary privilege and political conservatism, arguing for codified civil rights and political liberty. She also highlighted Burke's gendered language and criticised his silence on the plight of women. Wollstonecraft has inspired reverence and revulsion alike, for both her work and her lifestyle. Her prescience and nonconformity, however, have secured her position in the canon of distinguished eighteenth-century political thinkers. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=wollma

About this title

Book Description:

In the first printed response to Edmund Burke's attacks on the principles of the French Revolution, Wollstonecraft argues powerfully against hereditary privilege and political conservatism, instead proposing codified civil rights and political liberty. This 1790 pamphlet marked Wollstonecraft's entry into the public intellectual arena and assured her place in history.

About the Author:

Mary Wollstonecraft was a British author, philosopher, and advocate of women s rights. Raised by an abusive and neglectful father, Wollstonecraft was determined to have her own livelihood, and worked as a teacher and governess before becoming a translator and advisor for Joseph Johnson, a publisher of radical texts, in 1788. It was during this time that she wrote her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she argued against the idea that women are helpless and inferior to men, which was followed by Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman, which asserted that women had strong sexual desires.

Wollstonecraft passed away tragically in 1797, ten days after the birth of her second daughter, Mary, who would go on to write the literary classic Frankenstein. The life and death of Mary Wollstonecraft has been the subject of many biographies, including one written by her husband, Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1798.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 110801884X
• ISBN 13: 9781108018845
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160