MARY AND THE WRONGS OF WOMAN

• Main Author: Wollstonecraft, Mary 1759-1797 (Author)
• Other Authors: Kinsley, James (Editor), Kelly, Gary (Editor)
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 1980
• Series: Oxford English novels
• Subjects: Wollstonecraft, Mary > Wrongs of woman > 1759-1797; Women Fiction; Women
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.
• Item Description: The text of "Mary" is that of the first and only ed. published by Joseph Johnson in 1788.# The text of "The Wrongs of Woman" is that published for the first and only time in England in the first two volumes of "Posthumous Works of the Author
• Physical Description: xxviii, 231 pages 19 cm
• Bibliography: Bibliography: p. [xxiv]-xxv.
• ISBN: 019281527X

Both of Wollstonecraft's novels criticize what she viewed as the patriarchal institution of marriage and its deleterious effects on women. In her first novel, Mary: A Fiction, the eponymous heroine is forced into a loveless marriage for economic reasons; she fulfills her desire for love and affection outside of marriage with two passionate romantic friendships, one with a woman and one with a man. Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman novel published posthumously and often considered Wollstonecraft's most radical feminist work, revolves around the story of a woman imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband; like Mary, Maria also finds fulfillment outside of marriage, in an affair with a fellow inmate and a friendship with one of her keepers. Neither of Wollstonecraft's novels depict successful marriages, although she posits such relationships in the Rights of Woman.