New Releases by Mary Wollstonecraft

Frankenstein is a Gothic novel written by Mary Shelley. It tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a grotesque creature through an unconventional scientific experiment. As Frankenstein s creation grapples with his own identity and existence, he seeks revenge on his creator for abandoning him. The novel explores themes of ambition, responsibility, and the consequences of playing god. Shelley s timeless tale challenges the boundaries of humanity and the ethical implications of scientific discovery, making it a cornerstone of both Gothic literature and science fiction.

In "Mary Wollstonecraft''s Original Stories," the esteemed feminist philosopher and early advocate for women''s rights delves into a collection of enchanting tales that blend moral instruction with imaginative storytelling. This work emerges in a period when children''s literature was blossoming, yet still largely conformed to didactic expectations. Wollstonecraft employs a distinctive literary style that challenges the prevailing norms by integrating vivid characterization and moral dilemmas, thereby inviting young readers to engage with philosophical ideas through the lens of personal experience and emotional development. Her stories embody the Enlightenment ideals of reason while concurrently critiquing contemporary societal values. Mary Wollstonecraft, renowned for her groundbreaking treatise "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," uses her expertise as a pioneering thinker and educator to infuse her narratives with a profound ethical framework. Inspired by her own tumultuous experiences and a desire to cultivate the intellectual and moral capabilities of women and children, Wollstonecraft crafted these stories not simply as entertainment but as vehicles for social change. Her aspiration to elevate the status of women resonates throughout her writings, making them both relevant and revolutionary. "Mary Wollstonecraft''s Original Stories" is a compelling read for anyone interested in the intersections of literature, philosophy, and social reform. Readers will appreciate how Wollstonecraft''s narratives transcend mere children''s literature, exploring enduring themes of autonomy, ethical responsibility, and human connection. This collection provides a rich context for understanding the evolution of feminist thought and remains a vital contribution to both literary and social discourse.

Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley released her book Frankenstein in 1818. Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who develops an obsession with creating life, is the main character of the narrative. He ultimately succeeds in constructing a creature that resembles a human, but he is appalled by how it looks and gives up on it. The monster becomes furious and tries to end Victor''s life after being abandoned by its creator and despised by society. The book examines issues including ambition, the risks associated with scientific research, the effects of seclusion, and the strength of human passion. As one of the first works of science fiction addressing the moral consequences of scientific progress, Shelley''s book was revolutionary for its day. It also questioned conventional gender norms since Shelley was a woman who wrote in a profession that was mostly male. Since then, Frankenstein has emerged as a cultural icon and has been portrayed in a wide range of movies, plays, and other media. The book still has an impact on readers today because it poses significant queries about the place of science in society and the effects of our choices.

This publication is a political pamphlet, written by the 18th-century British liberal feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, which attacks aristocracy and advocates republicanism. Wollstonecraft''s was the first response in a pamphlet war sparked by the publication of Edmund Burke''s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), a defense of constitutional monarchy, aristocracy, and the Church of England.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, written by the 18th-century British proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy.This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

First published in 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was an instant success, turning its thirty-three-year-old author into a minor celebrity. A pioneering work of early feminism that extends to women the Enlightenment principle of "the rights of man," its argument remains as relevant today as it was for Woll-stonecraft''s contemporaries. "Mary Wollstonecraft was not the first writer to call for women to receive a real, challenging education," writes Katha Pollitt in the new Introduction. "But she was the first to connect the education of women to the transformation of women''s social position, of relations between the sexes, and even of society itself. She was the first to argue that women''s intellectual equality would and should have actual consequences. The winds of change sweep through her pages."This classic work of early feminism remains as relevant and passionate today as it was for Wollstonecraft''s contemporaries. This edition includes new explanatory notes.

200 years after it was first published, Mary Shelley''s Frankenstein has stood the test of time as a gothic masterpiece--a classic work of humanity and horror that blurs the line between man and monster... The story of Victor Frankenstein and the monstrous creature he created has held readers spellbound ever since it was published two centuries ago. On the surface, it is a novel of tense and steadily mounting horror; but on a more profound level, it offers searching illumination of the human condition in its portrayal of a scientist who oversteps the bounds of conscience, and of a monster brought to life in an alien world, ever more desperately attempting to escape the torture of his solitude. A novel of hallucinatory intensity, Frankenstein represents one of the most striking flowerings of the Romantic imagination. Original Complete Unabridged Illustrated with book-end doodles about reading

200 years after it was first published, Mary Shelley''s Frankenstein has stood the test of time as a gothic masterpiece--a classic work of humanity and horror that blurs the line between man and monster... The story of Victor Frankenstein and the monstrous creature he created has held readers spellbound ever since it was published two centuries ago. On the surface, it is a novel of tense and steadily mounting horror; but on a more profound level, it offers searching illumination of the human condition in its portrayal of a scientist who oversteps the bounds of conscience, and of a monster brought to life in an alien world, ever more desperately attempting to escape the torture of his solitude. A novel of hallucinatory intensity, Frankenstein represents one of the most striking flowerings of the Romantic imagination. Complete Original Unabridged Illustrated with book-end doodles about reading

200 years after it was first published, Mary Shelley''s Frankenstein has stood the test of time as a gothic masterpiece--a classic work of humanity and horror that blurs the line between man and monster... The story of Victor Frankenstein and the monstrous creature he created has held readers spellbound ever since it was published two centuries ago. On the surface, it is a novel of tense and steadily mounting horror; but on a more profound level, it offers searching illumination of the human condition in its portrayal of a scientist who oversteps the bounds of conscience, and of a monster brought to life in an alien world, ever more desperately attempting to escape the torture of his solitude. A novel of hallucinatory intensity, Frankenstein represents one of the most striking flowerings of the Romantic imagination. Complete Original Unabridged Illustrated with book-end doodles about reading

200 years after it was first published, Mary Shelley''s Frankenstein has stood the test of time as a gothic masterpiece--a classic work of humanity and horror that blurs the line between man and monster... The story of Victor Frankenstein and the monstrous creature he created has held readers spellbound ever since it was published two centuries ago. On the surface, it is a novel of tense and steadily mounting horror; but on a more profound level, it offers searching illumination of the human condition in its portrayal of a scientist who oversteps the bounds of conscience, and of a monster brought to life in an alien world, ever more desperately attempting to escape the torture of his solitude. A novel of hallucinatory intensity, Frankenstein represents one of the most striking flowerings of the Romantic imagination. Complete Original Unabridged Illustrated with book-end doodles about reading Beautifully laid out 6 x 9 paperback (15.24 x 22.86 cm) - reader friendly ebook version World Literature Classics is a home-based miniscule self-publisher, publishing the masterpieces of the written world. We don''t share money for advertisement, because we trust our readers'' support, and, we donate most of our income to stray animals.

Shelley''s suspenseful and intellectually rich gothic tale confronts some of the most important and enduring themes in all of literature―the power of human imagination, the potential hubris of science, the gulf between appearance and essence, the effects of human cruelty, the desire for revenge and the need for forgiveness, and much more. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. Simon & Schuster Classics are bringing Frankenstein back to life with a stunning but terrifying new cover. Through letters sent by Robert Walton to his wife, a wandering figure emerges named Victor Frankenstein. Frail and nearing his death, Victor recounts a fantastical story of how he assembled old body parts to create a human-like being, a creature so utterly monstrous and hideous that he regretted being its creator. Frankenstein''s rejection of his creation turns the ''creature'' into a true monster, resulting in murder and havoc and a treacherous voyage to find and kill it once and for all. Frankenstein is a true classic of modern literature and is often considered to be a pioneering work of science fiction. Through Mary Shelley''s extraordinary tale, we see the true reflection of the human condition, which demands wonder, fear and empathy.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman written by the 18th-century British proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft responds to those educational and political theorists of the 18th century who did not believe women should have an education. She argues that women ought to have an education commensurate with their position in society, claiming that women are essential to the nation because they educate its children and because they could be "companions" to their husbands, rather than mere wives. Instead of viewing women as ornaments to society or property to be traded in marriage, Wollstonecraft maintains that they are human beings deserving of the same fundamental rights as men. Wollstonecraft was prompted to write the Rights of Woman after reading Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord''s 1791 report to the French National Assembly, which stated that women should only receive a domestic education; she used her commentary on this specific event to launch a broad attack against sexual double standards and to indict men for encouraging women to indulge in excessive emotion. Wollstonecraft wrote the Rights of Woman hurriedly to respond directly to ongoing events; she intended to write a more thoughtful second volume but died before completing it. While Wollstonecraft does call for equality between the sexes in particular areas of life, such as morality, she does not explicitly state that men and women are equal. Her ambiguous statements regarding the equality of the sexes have since made it difficult to classify Wollstonecraft as a modern feminist, particularly since the word and the concept were unavailable to her. Although it is commonly assumed now that the Rights of Woman was unfavourably received, this is a modern misconception based on the belief that Wollstonecraft was as reviled during her lifetime as she became after the publication of William Godwin''s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798). The Rights of Woman was actually well received when it was first published in 1792. One biographer has called it "perhaps the most original book of [Wollstonecraft''s] century".

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792), written by the 18th-century British proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft responds to those educational and political theorists of the 18th century who did not believe women should receive a rational education.

Mary Wollstonecraft was born on 27th April 1759 in Spitalfields, London. Although her family had a comfortable income much was squandered by her father leading the family to become financially diminished. Wollstonecraft struck out on her own in 1778 and accepted a job as a lady''s companion. Frustrated by the limited career options open to respectable yet poor women, she nonetheless decided to embark upon a career as an author. At the time, few women could support themselves by writing. She learned French and German and translated texts. She also wrote reviews, primarily of novels, for Johnson''s periodical, the Analytical Review. Wollstonecraft also pursued a relationship with the artist Henry Fuseli. Boldly she proposed a platonic living arrangement with Fuseli and his wife. Fuseli''s wife was shocked and the relationship was severed. In December 1792 she left for France to view first hand the revolutionary events that she had just celebrated in her recent ''Vindication of the Rights of Men'' (1790) and that had brought her immediate fame. France declared war on Britain in February 1793 and Wollstonecraft tried to leave for Switzerland but was denied permission. Despite her sympathy for the revolution, life for Wollstonecraft was very uncomfortable. Having just written the ''Rights of Woman'', Wollstonecraft determined to put her ideas to the test. She alighted on and fell passionately in love with Gilbert Imlay, an American diplomat and adventurer. By now she was disillusioned by the Revolution''s path. She thought the republic behaved slavishly to those in power while the government was ''venal'' and ''brutal''. To protect Wollstonecraft from the prospect of arrest, Imlay made a false statement to the U.S. embassy in Paris that he had married her, automatically making her an American citizen. Wollstonecraft, now pregnant by Imlay, gave birth to her first child, Fanny, on 14th May 1794. She was overjoyed. The winter of 1794-95 was the coldest winter in over a century. Wollstonecraft and Fanny were reduced to desperate circumstances. Wollstonecraft now had to risk leaving France and did so on 7th April 1795. She sought Imlay out but he was impassive to her pleas. In May 1795 she attempted to commit suicide, but it is thought Imlay saved her life. But it was now certain that her relationship with Imlay was over. She attempted suicide for a second time but a passing stranger witnessed her jump into the Thames and rescued her. Gradually, Wollstonecraft returned to literary life, and to a relationship with William Godwin. Once Wollstonecraft became pregnant by him, they decided to marry so that the child would be legitimate. On 30th August 1797, Wollstonecraft gave birth to her second daughter, Mary. During the delivery the placenta broke apart and became infected. After several days of agony, Mary Wollstonecraft died of septicemia on 10th September 1797.

Mary Shelley (1797/08/30 - 1851/02/01) Mary Shelley British writer Works: Frankenstein; The last man... Genre: Science fiction Parents: William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft Genre: Science fiction Spouse: Percy Bysshe Shelley Son: Percy Florence Shelley Name: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley He was born on August 30, 1797 in London. Daughter of the philosopher William Godwin and the writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. A few days after her birth her mother, who had written Vindication of Women Rights, died of a fever leaving her husband in the care of Mary and her three and a half year old sister Fanny Imlay. Married Godwin later with a widow who already had two daughters with whom the philosopher would light a new scion.

Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft''s passionate work supporting women''s rights, is considered to be among the very first examples of feminist philosophy. When it appeared in 1792, Wollstonecraft''s treatise sets out a range of what were at the time radical beliefs; she thought all women should have a formal education, so that they may raise their children to be keener in mind as well as prove able conversationalists with their husbands. Wollestonecraft by no means unreservedly supports marriage: she states that women should not be thought of merely as items to be bandied about and wed, but as human beings capable of great intellect. Wollstonecraft also lambastes the prevailing social picture of women; that they have a number of fixed, narrow and often domestic duties. She also singles out how women are expected to behave, criticizing in particular the notion that the highest aspiration of a woman is to be a sentimental heroine in a popular romance novel.

A Vindication of the Rights of WomanWith Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft is a rare manuscript, the original residing in some of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, typed out and formatted to perfection, allowing new generations to enjoy the work. Publishers of the Valley''s mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life.

Title: Frankenstein or The Modern PrometheusAuthor: Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) ShelleyLanguage: English

Why buy our paperbacks? Expedited shipping High Quality Paper Made in USA Standard Font size of 10 for all books 30 Days Money Back Guarantee BEWARE of Low-quality sellers Don''t buy cheap paperbacks just to save a few dollars. Most of them use low-quality papers & binding. Their pages fall off easily. Some of them even use very small font size of 6 or less to increase their profit margin. It makes their books completely unreadable. How is this book unique? Unabridged (100% Original content) Font adjustments & biography included Illustrated Mathilda by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Mathilda, or Matilda, is the second long work of fiction of Mary Shelley, written between August 1819 and February 1820. It deals with common Romantic themes of incest and suicide. The act of writing this novella distracted Mary Shelley from her grief after the deaths of her one-year-old daughter Clara at Venice in September 1818 and her three-year-old son William in June 1819 in Rome. These losses plunged Mary Shelley into a depression that distanced her emotionally and sexually from Percy Shelley and left her, as he put it, "on the hearth of pale despair". Narrating from her deathbed, Matilda tells the story of her unnamed father''s confession of incestuous love for her, followed by his suicide by drowning; her relationship with a gifted young poet called Woodville fails to reverse Matilda''s emotional withdrawal or prevent her lonely death. Commentators have often read the text as autobiographical, the three central characters standing for William Godwin, Mary Shelley, and Percy Shelley. There is no firm evidence, however, that the storyline itself is autobiographical. Analysis of Matilda''s first draft, titled "The Fields of Fancy", reveals that Mary Shelley took as her starting point Mary Wollstonecraft''s unfinished "The Cave of Fancy", in which a small girl''s mother dies in a shipwreck. Like Mary Shelley herself, Matilda idealises her lost mother. According to editor Janet Todd, the absence of the mother from the last pages of the novella suggests that Matilda''s death renders her one with her mother, enabling a union with the dead father. Critic Pamela Clemit resists a purely autobiographical reading and argues that Mathilda is an artfully crafted novella, deploying confessional and unreliable narrations in the style of her father, as well as the device of the pursuit used by Godwin in his Caleb Williams and by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein. The novella''s 1959 editor, Elizabeth Nitchie, noted the novella''s faults of "verbosity, loose plotting, somewhat stereotyped and extravagant characterization" but praised a "feeling for character and situation and phrasing that is often vigorous and precise". The story may be seen as a metaphor for what happens when a woman, ignorant of all consequences, follows her own heart while dependent on her male benefactor.

Why buy our paperbacks? Expedited shipping High Quality Paper Made in USA Standard Font size of 10 for all books 30 Days Money Back Guarantee BEWARE of Low-quality sellers Don''t buy cheap paperbacks just to save a few dollars. Most of them use low-quality papers & binding. Their pages fall off easily. Some of them even use very small font size of 6 or less to increase their profit margin. It makes their books completely unreadable. How is this book unique? Unabridged (100% Original content) Font adjustments & biography included Illustrated Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman is the 18th-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft''s unfinished novelistic sequel to her revolutionary political treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The Wrongs of Woman was published posthumously in 1798 by her husband, William Godwin, and is often considered her most radical feminist work. Wollstonecraft''s philosophical and gothic novel revolves around the story of a woman imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband. It focuses on the societal rather than the individual "wrongs of woman" and criticizes what Wollstonecraft viewed as the patriarchal institution of marriage in eighteenth-century Britain and the legal system that protected it. However, the heroine''s inability to relinquish her romantic fantasies also reveals women''s collusion in their oppression through false and damaging sentimentalism. The novel pioneered the celebration of female sexuality and cross-class identification between women. Such themes, coupled with the publication of Godwin''s scandalous Memoirs of Wollstonecraft''s life, made the novel unpopular at the time it was published. Twentieth-century feminist critics embraced the work, integrating it into the history of the novel and feminist discourse. It is most often viewed as a fictionalized popularization of the Rights of Woman, as an extension of Wollstonecraft''s feminist arguments in Rights of Woman, and as autobiographical.

A powerful argument for gender equality from the world''s first feminist. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is one of the most important works of the modern era. In this book, Mary Wollstonecraft demonstrated that it was necessary for women to be educated in the same manner as men for the benefit of all society. She emphasised the capability of women for rational thought and their ability to pursue any field they might choose. Rather than relying on beauty, women should obtain control over their own lives through education and honesty.

Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had brought revolution to America and France, Mary Wollstonecraft produced her own declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate and forthright, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman attacked the prevailing view of docile, decorative femininity, and instead laid out the principles of emancipation: an equal education for girls and boys, an end to prejudice, and for women to become defined by their profession, not their partner. Mary Wollstonecraft''s work was received with a mixture of admiration and outrage - Walpole called her ''a hyena in petticoats'' - yet it established her as the mother of modern feminism.

Few creatures of horror have seized readers'' imaginations and held them for so long as the anguished monster of Mary Shelley''s Frankenstein. The story of Victor Frankenstein''s terrible creation and the havoc it caused has enthralled generations of readers and inspired countless writers of horror and suspense. Considering the novel''s enduring success, it is remarkable that it began merely as a whim of Lord Byron''s."We will each write a story," Byron announced to his next-door neighbors, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley. The friends were summering on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland in 1816, Shelley still unknown as a poet and Byron writing the third canto of Childe Harold. When continued rains kept them confined indoors, all agreed to Byron''s proposal.The illustrious poets failed to complete their ghost stories, but Mary Shelley rose supremely to the challenge. With Frankenstein, she succeeded admirably in the task she set for herself: to create a story that, in her own words, "would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror - one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart."

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Written in 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft''s Letters on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark is a travel consisting of 25 letters she wrote home during her trip to exotic Scandinavia. The work contains her thorough observation of these regions, their people, and society. She praises the domestic life of Scandinavia as well as the great industrial revolution taking place around her and also reflects on her deteriorating personal relationship with Gilbert Imlay, for whom she was conducting business during the trip.

One of the earliest works of protofeminist thought, this startling prescient 1792 book is the first published argument advocating for the societal elevation of women as the intellectual and emotional equals of men. Written against the background of the French Revolution--the debate over which caused an uproar in both England and France--and the 1791 statement by French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord to the French National Assembly that women should be educated only in domestic matters, this is a furious reprimand of the prevailing attitudes of late-18th-century Europe that women should be docile, virtuous, and untroubled by any matters beyond the home. Well received in its day and still an important resource for anyone wishing to understand the history of feminism, this extended essay demolishes the sexual double standard of the day, offers a rational defense for the education of girls, and demands merely that women be treated as people. British writer and educator MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (1759-1797), the mother of Frankenstein author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, espoused her then-radical feminist and liberal philosophies in other such works as Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) and History and Moral View of the Origins and Progress of the French Revolution (1793).

"Travellers who require that every nation should resemble their native country, had better stay at home," Mary Wollstonecraft wrote to her lover, Gilbert Imlay, in one of a series of letters addressed to him from her travels through Scandinavia in the summer of 1795. With a keen, withering eye, Wollstonecraft, one of the founding mothers of modern feminism, of course offers her insightful observations on the condition of womanhood in these northerly nations. But she also delights the reader with poetic portraits of the landscapes, observations on the rural and urban societies she encounters, and the particular difficulties encountered by a woman travelling alone, with only her infant daughter and a nursemaid for company... especially a woman who asks "men''s questions" of those she meets along the way.First collected in book form in 1796, these letters display a strikingly modern attitude from a woman who was far ahead of her time.British writer and educator MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (1759-1797), the mother of Frankenstein author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, espoused her then-radical feminist and liberal philosophies in such works as Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), and History and Moral View of the Origins and Progress of the French Revolution (1793).

You will smile at an observation that has just occurred to me:--I consider those minds as the most strong and original, whose imagination acts as the stimulus to their senses, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote in a letter contemplating the role of the imagination in human relationships. Enlightenment feminist and famed author of The Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft was also one of the most distinctive letter writers of the eighteenth century. This volume contains all of her known correspondence. Wollstonecraft talked and thought on paper; her letters were a large part of the drama of her life. In them she grows from an awkward child of fourteen to the woman of thirty-eight facing death in childbirth. Where the letters of "bluestocking" writers such as Elizabeth Carter and Catherine Talbot have a public quality, Wollstonecraft''s letters--whether written in haste or carefully composed, opinionated, or vulnerable--stand out among those of other contemporary writers for their candor and lack of sentimentality. They create a palpable world, a sense of inner vitality, revealing a woman of consistent character who nonetheless struggled to reconcile disparate aspects of her life: integrity and sexual longing; the needs and duties of a woman; motherhood and intellectual life; fame and domesticity; reason and passion. Written in cramped lodgings and swaying boats, in the wilds of Scandinavia and the chill of Paris in winter, these letters record not a finished, ordered life viewed retrospectively but the dynamic process of living. Collectively, they form a remarkable work of autobiography that reveals the many dimensions of Wollstonecraft''s genius.

The letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley reveal a remarkable woman living in a remarkable age. They date from October 1814 - shortly after her elopement with Percy Bysshe Shelley - through September 1850, five months before her death. Her correspondents'' names are familiar - Shelley himself, Byron, Bulwer-Lytton, Disraeli, General Lafayette, Sir Walter Scott - and the letters abound with anecdotes about such eminent figures as her parents (William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft), Keats, Washington Irving, and Charles and Mary Lamb. Publication of the widely acclaimed three-volume edition of Mary Shelley''s letters was completed in 1988, containing all 1,276 of her known extant letters. Now Betty T. Bennett has selected 230 of those letters to give an overview of Mary Shelley''s life as she was seeing it, living it, and recording it. Bennett also includes an introductory essay that sketches a portrait of Mary Shelley, her world, and her place in the history of literature and letters.