Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary, A Fiction

Joshua Grasso (East Central University)

Ed. by Daniel Cook, University of Dundee
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1788

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

In 1785, Mary Wollstonecraft’s life seemed at its lowest ebb. Her dearest friend, Fanny Blood, had died in Portugal after a long illness, and the school they had jointly established in Newington Green was drowning in debt and disappointment. With few prospects and nowhere to go, she began brooding over the fate of women in English society, a society that had sacrificed Fanny in a loveless marriage and now threatened to thwart her own prospects for happiness. Encouraged by a friend, she recorded these thoughts in a fiery dissertation that offered a prelude of works to come,

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters

(1787). The topical manuscript quickly passed into Samuel Johnson’s hands, who not only offered to buy it, but encouraged her to write more in the same vein. With such a…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2097 words

Citation: Grasso, Joshua. "Mary, A Fiction". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 November 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3723, accessed 24 April 2024.]

Save this article