10 - Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin by Elizabeth Robins Pennell cover art

10 - Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin by Elizabeth Robins Pennell

10 - Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin by Elizabeth Robins Pennell

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 Few women have dedicated themselves so passionately to the cause of humanity as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin [1759-1797], and few have faced such harsh criticism. As Elizabeth Robins Pennell opens this poignant biography, she recounts how the young were cautioned against reading Wollstonecrafts works, while older generations were warned against emulating her life, with her suffering deemed a fitting punishment for her choices. Born to a tumultuous family—her father, a volatile alcoholic, squandered their fortune, while her mother imposed strict discipline—Mary emerged as a brilliant self-taught scholar. Leaving her role as a governess, she ventured to London to make a living through translation and writing. In 1790, she gained recognition for her defense of the French Revolution in Vindication of the Rights of Man, followed by her groundbreaking 1792 text, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. After an unplanned pregnancy led to abandonment by her lover, Gilbert Imlay, she faced despair and attempted suicide. In 1797, she wed William Godwin, but tragically passed away from post-partum septicemia after giving birth to her second daughter, the future Mary Shelley, renowned for her novel Frankenstein. - Summary by Pamela Nagami
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