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Born into poverty to an abusive father who squandered a family fortune, with no
opportunity for further education, and limited social and intellectual circles determined
by her sex, Mary Wollstonecraft became the mother of feminism in all its forms. When
Wollstonecraft wrote A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN, the hallmark manifesto in which
she insisted that women enjoy the same rights and liberties as men, she gained worldwide
recognition and began to live the life she had always imagined. She lived in Paris at the
time of the French Revolution and gave birth to the child of an American lover who
eventually deserted her. Later, she married the philosopher William Godwin but perished in
childbirth --- that child, Mary Godwin, went on to marry Percy Bysshe Shelley, write
FRANKENSTEIN and continue her mother's fight for women's equality. Quite a life, to be
sure.
Biographer Jacobs manages to shed some new light on Wollstonecraft's life by using the
letters of her dedicated publisher, Joseph Johnson, and rare letters in which Mary
discussed her American lover and father of her first child, Gilbert Imlay, a love story
that had not been discussed in detail before this book was being researched. Jacobs delves
into all the aspects of the communities, traditions, and social mores that attempted to
hold down Wollstonecraft, and which she eventually succeeded in overcoming. It gives
excellent context for her stellar achievements, helping contemporary readers to understand
why what she accomplished was so remarkable given the limited resources available to her.
The salons of Louis XVI's France and the dark days of the French Revolution and its
aftermath are all aptly described, so that the historical context of Mary's days helps
shed even greater light on what she was up against.
Wollstonecraft was an important and premier writer and thinker who must never be
forgotten. HER OWN WOMAN is a successfully rendered picture of this great woman and all
that she stood for.
--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
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