Book Review:
Life Of Mary Wollstonecraft (1890)
by
While playing with my IPod on my way to Washington D.C., I downloaded the App Kobo which, allows users to download and read books/magazines on your IPod. It is a great App which I recommend to others. Anyway, I began searching for Wollstonecraft since I just began reading her most famous work, A Vindication on the Rights of Women. I have written about her numerous times here since, I consider Wollstonecraft to be the genesis of my interest in feminism. Thus, I downloaded her biography written by Elizabeth Robins Pennell in 1890. The book is in the public domain, so you can read it too, here.
I think it is important to analyzed why Elizabeth Robins Pennell is writing this book. After the death of Wollstonecraft, her husband, philosopher William Godwin, published her posthumous works, including her letters. Wollstonecraft life was unconventional to say the least. She had a daughter out of wedlock with the American Gilbert Imlay who left her with the newborn in France during the French Revolution. There were also rumors that she had an affair with Henry Fuseli and she began cohabitating with Godwin before marrying. Due to her unorthodox lifestyles, her reputation was destroyed for almost a century. With this in mind, Robins Pennell's goal is to restore or at least explain the reasons for Wollstoncraft's actions. Robins Pennell is an admirer of Wollstonecraft, and she writes with high praises of the life and work of Wollstonecraft.
Wollstonecraft had a very tragic life impacted by domestic abuse and poverty. She moved a lot during her young life because her drunken father's inability to provide for his family. As the eldest, she was in charge of her young siblings. Robins Pennell goes into great detail about Mary's relationship with her siblings, her best friend Fanny Blood, and her short career as a governess. The book excellently uses Wollstonecraft letter's and work to narrate her story.
I knew fairly a lot about Wollstonecraft's life, but one aspect that Robins Pennell emphasized was new to me, and that was Wollstonecraft's relationship with religion. She was not an atheist like Godwin, and in fact, drew heavily on religion in her work and letters. Granted her understanding of religion and God changed as she got older, she still believed in a higher power. The author writes the following explaing how Mary was trying to help her sister Eliza, "Her one source of consolation and strength at this time was her religion. This will seem strange to many, who, knowing but few facts of her life, conclude from her connection with Godwin and her social radicalism that she was an atheist. But the sincerest spirit of piety breathes through her letters written during her early troubles."
It was very interesting seeing Robins Pennell explain Wollstonecraft's relationship with Fuseli, Imlay, and Godwin. The story regarding Wollstonecraft and Fuseli, a married Swiss artists, is that Wollstonecraft has hopelessly in love with him and didn't particularly hided it. However, since he was married, it was impossible for them to establish a socially acceptable relationship. The notorious rumor is that Wollstonecraft asked Fuseli and his wife is she could live with them. In trying to debunk this rumor, Robins Pennell explains that there are many versions of the story. Biographer Kegan Paul states that this story must not be true since "Mary remained to the end the correspondent and close friend of Mrs. Fuseli."
Robins Pennell is not kind to Imlay who was Wollstonecraft partner (non-husband?) while they were in France. Imaly was often absent from Mary and their daughter's life since his main preocupation was to gain riches. Robins Pennell stated that Imlay and Wollstonecraft did not marry because she, in revolutionary France, "would be obliged to proclaim herself a British subject, and would thus be risking imprisonment and perhaps death." Mary believed that in marriage, the mutual feelings are more important than what the law demands.
Mary's relationship with Godwin was frowned upon by many because she was seen as Imlay's wife (she used his last name even though they never were legally married). Thus, when Mary began a relationship with Godwin, people started to comment and whisper. They ultimately decided to marry because they didn't want their future child to be born out of wedlock, and avoid the social turmoil that would cause. Robins Pennell writes, "The plan he proposed was that they should be as independent of each other as they had hitherto been, that the time spent together should not in any way be restricted or regulated by stated hours, and that, in their amusements and social intercourse, each should continue wholly free." The wedding was such a low affair event for Godwin that he didn't even noted in his diary. They lived in separate houses and corresponded with each other through letters.
Thankfully, Wollstonecraft now is known for her book Vindication rather than her personal romances. This books states that Wollstonecraft wrote her book 'to demonstrate that the old ideas were false.' She wanted to show that women are human and 'should be given the opportunity to assert themselves as such.' Wollstonecraft was very critical of the educational system which aimed women as being 'alluring mistresses'. Her book is directed towards the middle class because they 'appear to her to be in a more natural state.' Robins Pennell states that Vindication is a 'work of inspiration', and one that will live forever because Mary believed in what she wrote. Robins Pennell writes, "She eloquently denied [women's] inferiority to men, not that they might claim superiority, but simply that they might show themselves to be the equals of the other sex."
I am very grateful that I was able to read the biography of someone that I have great admiration for. This biography increased by respect for Wollstonecraft, and this will help me have a reference point everytime I read her work. She was forced to live a life that women in the 21th century take for granted --- back in the 18th century. The book concludes with the following, "Whether her principles and conduct be applauded or condemned, she must always be honored for her integrity of motive, her fearlessness of action, and her faithful devotion to the cause of humanity. Like Heine, she deserves to have a sword laid upon her grave, for she was a brave soldier in the battle of freedom for mankind."
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On a side note, this is the first book that I read on a e-reader. I have been personally against them because I like to feel a book in my hand, plus I like to highlight and write on the margins of books. However, this experience wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. One of the advantages is that I can use a dictionary right away, so I am able to understand and learn new words. Also, I am able to highlight and add 'notes'. I am not sure that I might be able to read, say "War and Peace', on my tiny IPod, but I would consider it for short stories and essays. I feel like I am betraying books, though.
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