Customer Reviews
One for the Romantics. - By: A reader, 07 Jan 2007 
This edition offers two works that complement each other with a sincerity & 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 & 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 & full of compassion for Mary, her loves & ambitions. Indeed his description of her drawn out death is horrifying, intensely emotional & 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 & the consequences of love. In telling passages Wollstonecraft describes herself `as a particle broken off from the grand mass of mankind' & humanity `born merely to be swept prematurely away.' Whereas Godwin reveals `a women universallly well spoken of for the warmth & 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!
A thrilling and moving account by an extraordinary woman - By: , 23 Nov 2000 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 & artist in her own right. This is one of the major literary contributions to Romanticism, but provides a more intimate & personal perspective than many of her male contemporaries. It is a love story, a history, travel guide & adventure story alll 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, & yet she remains couragous, feisty, passionate & intellectual throughout. This was a fascinating period in history, & Wolstonecraft crams alll of the concerns of her time into this book. Her close link with Nature, a recurrent theme of the Romantics, informs the whole narrative, & her vibrant prose fills the reader's head with vivid images.
Wolstonecraft was only 38 when she died, & 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, & is stimulating & moving. Wolstonecraft & Godwin campaigned for a freer & more just society & 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.
