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Summary: One for the Romantics.
Comment: This edition offers two works that complement each other with a sincerity and sagacity that is inspiring. Mary Wollstonecraft, the adventurous `single' mother, proto feminist, free thinker, seeking happiness but beset by a love for a man who is unable to return her devotion. William Godwin, intellectual, Radical, an objectively passionate writer who was to become an influential force for modern biographical development. Holmes' erudite introduction helpfully explains the context for Wollstonecraft's trip to Scandinavia, providing the biographical background necessary to understand Wollstonecraft's views on diverse issues such as commerce, the role of women, capital punishment, her lover's negligence towards her and their daughter (the ill fated Fanny). Godwin, as Holmes details, leaves no stone unturned as he explores the life of his short lived wife, never judgemental and full of compassion for Mary, her loves and ambitions. Indeed his description of her drawn out death is horrifying, intensely emotional and surprisingly sanguine: providing striking psychological observations . Ultimately, however, I was left with a deep sense of the confessional, both writers displaying an uninhibited desire to express feeling, sensuality, reasoning and the consequences of love. In telling passages Wollstonecraft describes herself `as a particle broken off from the grand mass of mankind' and humanity `born merely to be swept prematurely away.' Whereas Godwin reveals `a women universally well spoken of for the warmth and purity of her benevolence', a characteristic reflected in his views on her published Scandinavian correspondence, `if ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book.' Well you were right William!
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Summary: A thrilling and moving account by an extraordinary woman
Comment: Mary Wollstonecraft is perhaps most famous for being the mother of Mary Shelley, author of the Gothic classic "Frankenstein", but this book proves her to be a fascinating subject and artist in her own right. This is one of the major literary contributions to Romanticism, but provides a more intimate and personal perspective than many of her male contemporaries. It is a love story, a history, travel guide and adventure story all rolled into one . When I first read the book I was amazed that a woman in the eighteenth century undertook such a journey. She was travelling in the little known Scandinavia, unaccompanied, and yet she remains couragous, feisty, passionate and intellectual throughout. This was a fascinating period in history, and Wolstonecraft crams all of the concerns of her time into this book. Her close link with Nature, a recurrent theme of the Romantics, informs the whole narrative, and her vibrant prose fills the reader's head with vivid images. Wolstonecraft was only 38 when she died, and to my mind, remains one of the most neglected writers of the time. The second part of the book, is written by her husband Godwin. It is a biography of his wife, and is stimulating and moving. Wolstonecraft and Godwin campaigned for a freer and more just society and this book will bring the era alive in glowing colours. Her better known work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, is also highly recommended.
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