Name: Bedtime Biography: Vindication
Rating: 4.6 (223 reviews)
Author: Lyndall Gordon

Introduction

Bedtime Biographies are best when listened to. Check out the audio version to get the full experience!

Today, Mary Wollstonecraft is enshrined in history as a hero of the women’s rights movement –⁠ perhaps even the very first feminist. She was, in her own words, “the first of a new genus”: a woman who dared to question the reigning belief that women were born inferior to men.

Wollstonecraft’s most famous piece of writing, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, made her a celebrity both in her own time and after her death. But what inspired Mary to fight so spiritedly for women’s emancipation? What life experiences shaped her views? Find out in this bedtime biography.

Chapter 1

Mary Wollstonecraft’s righteous indignation took root early in her childhood. Her home was a tall brick house on Primrose Street, London. Today, the area is packed with high-rise office buildings and a bustling subway station. But in Mary’s time, it was a quiet, charming residential neighborhood.

Unfortunately, the area’s quaintness wasn’t matched by the environment inside Mary’s home. As the eldest daughter of seven children, Mary bore the brunt of her mother’s discipline. Elizabeth Wollstonecraft “trained” her daughter to be obedient, like a dog. Mary was made to sit silently for long stretches of time – three to four hours – even as a young child.

Chapter 2

In 1784, Mary and her sister Bess were two homeless, penniless young women with no work experience to speak of. And yet, they had one unexpected advantage: an old woman named Mrs. Burgh, who appeared in their lives like a wizened fairy godmother. She provided the women with advice on how they could begin a school – despite the gaps in their education – and possibly also financial assistance.

The women took Mrs. Burgh’s advice to heart, and they set up a school two miles north of London, in Newington Green. Success came quickly –⁠ Mary and Bess were able to obtain 20 students in just two or three weeks of opening. Everina, Mary’s other sister, joined them, as did Mary’s dear friend Fanny.

Chapter 3

Mary’s writing career kicked off while she was teaching at Newington Green. After classes finished for the day, Mary would spend her evenings penning her thoughts on education. These were later published in a book called Thoughts on the Education of Daughters.

Eventually, Mary left the school and worked as a governess until she received a large sum of money from a friend. The money allowed her to begin paying off her debts, move to London, and finally pursue her writing career in earnest.

Chapter 4

Mary’s relationship with Imlay would not remain sweet for long. He was an enterprising man with little taste for domesticity, and he soon moved to Le Havre, a shipping port northwest of Paris. The distance between them grated on Mary, and she began to suspect him of having an affair.

In addition, Mary discovered she was pregnant. On May 10, 1794, she gave birth to a little girl she named after her old, great friend: Fanny Blood.

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Narrated by Karen Cass

Vindication (2006) tells the inspiring, thrilling, and often tragic tale of the life of Mary Wollstonecraft, known today as the founder of modern feminism. Drawing on significant moments in Wollstonecraft’s life, from her childhood in an abusive household to her experiences co-founding a school and living in Revolutionary France, it paints a picture of a woman who was as complex as she was brilliant. Throughout every stage of her life, Wollstonecraft was truly an original thinker, and her influence on feminist thought continues to ring out today.