This book is memorable, educational, and enjoyable, exploring Wollstonecraft’s life and thought with brio and unrestrained pleasure. Wood, author of The Habits of Distraction This remarkable book not only situates Wollstonecraft in history but also shows in detail how she altered history by writing so well. Mary Wollstonecraft helped us to understand how easily the rights of women can vanish from the political and social scene and how ‘natural’ it can seem for men and women to ignore them. Sharing the excitement of reading Wollstonecraft’s work with care for her literary as well as political genius, this book provides fresh perspectives both for first-time readers and those seeking a nuanced appreciation of her achievements. Wolfson reveals her as a pioneer in decoupling sex from gender and shows how she provided an enduring model of how to be a female intellectual. Wollstonecraft pinpointed the role of gendered phrases and concepts in political discourse, both in her opponents’ metaphors and received ideas and in her own efforts to craft a new political language with which to defend women’s capabilities. She considers how Wollstonecraft balanced advocacy for the seemingly universal ideals of the French Revolution with analysis of the gendered exclusions in the vaunted rights of “man.” This book pays particular attention to Wollstonecraft’s literary craft, highlighting the force of her close reading. Wolfson places this polemic in its political and literary contexts and in relation to Wollstonecraft’s other works about political rights. Wolfson offers new insight into how Wollstonecraft’s particular methods, style, and energy make this case for her readers. Drawing on extensive experience teaching and writing about Wollstonecraft, Susan J. Emerging from the turbulent decade of the French Revolution, her vindication delivered a systematic critique of the treatment of women across time and place. Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) made a pioneering and durably influential argument for women’s equality.
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