This is a travel narrative composed of letters written to her lover, Gilbert Imlay. The second work of Wollstonecraft’s in our collection is a first edition 1796 printing of her Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, the last of her books published during her lifetime. Title page, Letters Written During A Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, by Mary Wollstonecraft.
Sadly, Wollstonecraft died resulting from an infection following Mary’s birth.
With Godwin, she became pregnant with her second daughter, Mary, who would grow up to establish her own literary fame as Frankenstein author Mary Shelley. After her relationship with Imlay broke apart, she eventually ended up marrying William Godwin, who she met through her literary friendships. The letters she wrote to Gilbert Imlay-the father of her daughter, Fanny-would be published in 1796 as Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. She returned to England in 1795 and soon embarked on travels through Scandinavia. It presented Wollstonecraft’s analysis of the conditions and causes of the Revolution and the perspectives of French people.
During this time, she wrote A Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution, which was published after the fall of the Jacobins in 1794. Wollstonecraft lived in France during the Revolution, sympathizing with the cause of the revolutionaries. She pursued an affair with a married man and bore a child with another out of wedlock. She had an unconventional life for her time, pursuing a career as a writer when it was nearly unheard of for a woman to do.
1797Īs a quick introduction, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an English writer and philosopher who brought attention to women’s rights at a time when such things were not commonly discussed.
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