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This collection was designed for optimal navigation on Kindle and other electronic devices. This collection offers lower price, the convenience of a one-time download, and it reduces the clutter in your digital library. All books included in this collection feature a hyperlinked table of contents and footnotes. The collection is complimented by an author biography.

Customer Reviews (2)

Works of Mary Shelley
Works of Mary Shelley. Frankenstein, The Last Man, Falkner, Mathilda, Valperga, Lodore, The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck & more. Published by MobileReference (mobi)

Mary Shelley was ahead of the times. She addressed many key issues that we have been discussing even to this day. I love her works because she was a visionary and to some extent almost a psychic, predicting certain trends that would impact society for many years to come.

FRANKENSTEIN
Works of Mary Shelley: Frankenstein, The Last Man, Mathilda, Proserpine & Midas, and The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Mary Shelly's ideas are so powerful that they continue to resonate today. This is an excellent collection of her works. Great ebook! ... Read more

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Pioneering eighteenth-century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft lived a life as radical as her vision of a fairer world. She overcame great disadvantages -- poverty (her abusive, sybaritic father squandered the family fortune), a frivolous education, and the stigma of being unmarried in a man's world.

Her life changed when Thomas Paine's publisher, Joseph Johnson, determined to make her a writer. Wollstonecraft's great feminist document, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which brought her fame throughout Europe, insisted that women reap all the new liberties men were celebrating since the fall of the Bastille in France.

Wollstonecraft lived as fully as a man would, socializing with the great painters, poets, and revolutionaries of her era. She traveled to Paris during the French Revolution; fell in love with Gilbert Imlay, a fickle American; and, unmarried, openly bore their daughter, Fanny. Wollstonecraft at last found domestic peace with the philosopher William Godwin but died giving birth to their daughter, Mary, who married Percy Bysshe Shelley, wrote the classic Frankenstein, and carried on her mother's bold ideas. Wollstonecraft's first child, Fanny, suffered a more tragic fate.

This definitive biography of Mary Wollstonecraft gives a balanced, thorough, freshly sympathetic view. Diane Jacobs also continues Wollstonecraft's story by concluding with those of her daughters. Her Own Woman is distinguished by the author's use of new first sources, among which are Joseph Johnson's letters, discovered by an heir in the late 1990s, and rare letters referring to Wollstonecraft's lover Gilbert Imlay. Jacobs has written an absorbing narrative that is essential to understanding Mary Wollstonecraft's life and the importance it has had on women throughout history.Amazon.com Review
Diane Jacobs's exemplary popular biography makes pioneering 18th-century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) a vivid character for contemporary readers. Much more sympathetic than Janet Todd was in her book Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life, Jacobs acknowledges Wollstonecraft's extravagantly emotional nature and wearying demands on loved ones, yet roots her shortcomings in frustration provoked by a society blatantly unjust toward women. Mary had to educate herself while her brothers attended the local grammar school; she cared for her dying mother while her farther seduced a younger woman; her sister could escape a bad marriage only by leaving behind a baby. The intelligent, unconventional Wollstonecraft's choice of occupations was limited to governess, paid companion, or schoolteacher, all of which she tried and detested.

No wonder she felt most at home with London radicals fired by the promise of the French Revolution, including publisher Joseph Johnson, who encouraged her early writing and in 1792 issued her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Jacobs does a nice job of conveying the scandalous impact of Wollstonecraft's then unprecedented insistence on economic and intellectual equality for women, and she evokes with similar immediacy the fervent atmosphere of revolutionary France, where Wollstonecraft fell in love with American Gilbert Imlay and bore his child. Imlay's desertion prompted two suicide attempts, but the perennially depressive Wollstonecraft found solace in England with philosopher William Godwin before dying of childbed fever after giving birth to a daughter, also named Mary, who would later run off with married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. In a narrative notable for its lively prose, dramatic punch, and positive assessment of the tempestuous Wollstonecraft, it's characteristic that Jacobs closes, not with her tragic death, but 19 years later as Mary Shelley began to write Frankenstein and "the revolution continued." --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An Independent Spirit
Today, most people know Mary Wollstonecraft for two things: her pioneering book, considered the first feminist work 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman', and her famous daughter, Mary Shelley, author of `Frankenstein'.Diane Jacobs' biography shows that Wollstonecraft was much more than her works and progeny.Born into a life of unnecessary poverty (her father wasted the family money), Wollstonecraft, from an early age, fought against the injustices she saw around her.By the time she reached adulthood, she had rejected the typical role for women in the 18th century, especially where conventional marriage was concerned; she also believed there was more to life than teaching or being a governess (the acceptable occupations for women).After trials, more poverty, and unrequited love, Wollstonecraft comes into her own when she becomes a writer and then travels to France during the revolution: here she is exposed to the wider world, serves as an education advisor in one of the revolutionary governments, and meets the love of her life, American Gilbert Imlay, by whom she has a daughter, Fanny.Although the relationship doesn't last, self-realization propels her to a mature writing style and philosophy that was unfortunately cut short by her death after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary. Jacobs does an excellent job of chronicling Mary's life and work; however, I found the beginning of the book repetitious (but then again, so was her early life), and only when Mary goes to France did I find it to be interesting.What I found fascinating was the stereotypical `female' reaction Mary has to her deteriorating relationship with Imlay: plaintive letters and even suicide attempts to get attention and keep an unfaithful (and flaky) lover with her.Jacobs has a knack for describing the supporting characters in Mary's life wonderfully: Mary's two sniping sisters, their resentment and complete lack of understanding of Mary's choices (and some of it is deserved, as many of Mary's promises to help them never came to be); Imlay, obviously good-hearted, but shallow (and surprisingly naïve - his request of William Godwin to not talk badly about him, even though he takes Fanny's support money away after Mary's death is worthy of criticism); Joseph Johnson, whose long-suffering support of Mary makes him one of the most sympathetic characters in her story; and Henry Fuseli, the painter, for whom Mary had an obsessive passion (despite the fact he was bisexual and married).Perhaps where this book falls short is in the portrait of William Godwin: not really mentioned until the middle of the book, he seems tacked on at the end; his and Mary's relationship, at times, seems one of convenience, at least for her.The most poignant part of the book, at least for me, was at the end, when Fanny, overlooked by her stepfather (and ignored by her biological father) accomplishes what her mother attempted: at 22, she travels to Wales, checks into a hotel, and commits suicide, leaving a letter hoping that her family would "have the blessing of forgetting that such a creature ever existed..." (285).It would have been fascinating to learn what this first, and possibly smarter, daughter of Wollstonecraft could have accomplished had she been given the chance.

A Fascinating Look At A Fascinating Woman
If you are familar with Mary Shelley(or her classic book "Frankenstein") This extremely researched and well-written biography introduces you to her mother,Mary Wollenstonecraft(Godwin) A lady who was truly before her time(the late 1700's). The daughter of an abusive father and indiffrent mother,her brilliant mind enabled her to write the classic treatise "Vindication Of The Rights Of Women" while only in her 20's. She also journeyed to France and witnessed The French Revolution in all it's g(l)ory,had several passionate love affairs,one which produced a child though the father had no intention of leaving his wife and marrying her, making her a single working mother long before it was either fashionable or accepted. She married William Godwin ,(the father of the future Mary Shelley) and tragically died from complications of herchildbirth at 38. Although Ms. Wollenstonecraft's life was short,it was well-lived and makes for fascinating reading that the author(Diane Jacobs) vividly brings to life with both immediacy and wit. An empowering book for woman as well as an engrossing bio for both sexes..

An extraordinary work!
I had the great pleasure of reading and using Diane Jacobs' "Her Own Woman: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft" while researching and writing my recent biography, "Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy (Corinthian Books, 2002).Vice President Aaron Burr, for all his flaws, was the first prominent American man to enthusiastically embrace and publicly endorse Wollstonectaft's radical feminist views on the equal education of women.He used her principles to give his teenage daughter, Theodosia, a "man's education" which would equip her for the three roles in life he envisioned for her: queen, president, or empress.I found Ms. Jacobs' work extremely insightful and enormously useful in understanding this woman who many cite as one of the first mothers of feminism. -- Richard N. Côté

Beautifully written, always fascinating.
Diane Jacobs has taken the intriguing, and sometimes tragic story of Mary Wollstonecraft and turned out a riveting account of a true pioneer. Fresh and readable, the book makes use of previously unknown sources to provide a new perspective on someone who's life was even more dramatic than her important writings. Far and away the best book on Wollstonecraft. Truely enjoyable and highly recommended. ... Read more

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ReadHowYouWant publishes a wide variety of best selling books in Large and Super Large fonts in partnership with leading publishers. EasyRead books are available in 11pt and 13pt. type. EasyRead Large books are available in 16pt, 16pt Bold, and 18pt Bold type. EasyRead Super Large books are available in 20pt. Bold and 24pt. Bold Type. You choose the format that is right for you.

This is Volume Volume 1 of 2-Volume Set.To purchase the complete set, you will need to order the other volumes separately: to find them, search for the following ISBNs: 9781427080059

Valperga (1823) by Mary Shelley is a historic novel about the adventures of Castruccio Castracani, a 14th-century Italian prince, captain, and tyrant. He attacks the Valpegra fortress, which is ruled by the Countess Euthanasia, whom he loves. Compelled to choose from amongst her love for him and her freedom, she makes a choice that results in her murder.

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Customer Reviews (1)

Gothic at its best
Mary Shelley was the daughter of the famous feminist and author, Mary Wollstonecraft, who is best known for her work The Vindication of the Rights of Women.In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a young university student, Victor Frankenstein, obsesses with wanting to know the secret to life.He studies chemistry and natural philosophy with the goal of being able to create a human out of spare body parts.After months of constant work in his laboratory, Frankenstein attains his goal and brings his creation to life.Frankenstein is immediately overwrought by fear and remorse at the sight of his creation, a "monster."The next morning, he decides to destroy his creation but finds that the monster has escaped.The monster, unlike other humans, has no social preparation or education; thus, it is unequipped to take care of itself either physically or emotionally.The monster lives in the forest like an animal without knowledge of "self" or understanding of its surroundings.The monster happens upon a hut inhabited by a poor family and is able to find shelter in a shed adjacent to the hut.For several months, the monster starts to gain knowledge of human life by observing the daily life of the hut's inhabitants through a crack in the wall.The monster's education of language and letters begins when he listens to one of them learning the French language.During this period, the monster also learns of human society and comes to the realization that he is grotesque and alone in the world.Armed with his newfound ability to read, he reads three books that he found in a leather satchel in the woods.Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther, Milton's Paradise Lost, and a volume of Plutarch's Lives.The monster, not knowing any better, read these books thinking them to be facts about human history.From Plutarch's works, he learns of humankind's virtues.However, it is Paradise Lost that has a most interesting effect on the monster's understanding of self.The monster at first identifies with Adam, "I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence."The monster, armed only with his limited education, thought that he would introduce himself to the cottagers and depend on their virtue and benevolence; traits he believed from his readings that all humans possessed.However, soon after his first encounter with the cottagers, he is beaten and chased off because his ugliness frightens people.The monster is overwrought by a feeling of perplexity by this reaction, since he thought he would gain their trust and love, which he observed them generously give to each other on so many occasions.He receives further confirmation of how his ugliness repels people when, sometime later, he saves a young girl from drowning and the girl's father shoots at him because he is frightful to look at.The monster quickly realizes that the books really lied to him.He found no benevolence or virtue among humans, even from his creator.At every turn in his life, humans are judging him solely based on his looks.The monster soon realizes that it is not Adam, the perfect being enjoying the world, which he is most alike.Instead, he comes to realize that he most represents Satan.The monster is jealous of the happiness he sees humans enjoy that he has never attained for himself.The monster tells Frankenstein that he found his lab journal in his coat pocket and read it with increasing hate and despair as he came to understand what Frankenstein's intent was in creating him.The monster curses Frankenstein for making a creature so hideous that even his creator turned from him in disgust.

Shelley's intent here is plain to see."The fate of the monster suggests that proficiency in `the art of language' as he calls it, may not ensure one's position as a member of the `human kingdom."In a sense, she is showing that both her parents were mistaken when they advocated greater education reform for people.They thought education would make people better, which in turn would improve society for all.Mary Shelley's Frankenstein contradicts this belief.

Starting with the full title of Mary Shelley's book, Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus one can instantly see that mythology was integral to her book.Lord Byron, poet and friend of the Shelley's was writing a poem entitled Prometheus, and Mary was reading the Prometheus legend in Aeschylus' works when she had a dream, which was the impetus for her book.The Greek god Prometheus, is known for two important tasks that he performed, he created man from clay, and he stole fire from the gods and gave it to man.The stealing of fire really angered Zeus because the giving of fire began an era of enlightenment for humankind.Zeus punished Prometheus by having him carried to a mountain, where an eagle would pick at his liver; it would grow back each day and the eagle would eat it again.

The presence of fire and light in this gothic story helps to point to the similarities to Prometheus and Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the monster, in Shelley's book.The book uses light as a symbol of discovery, knowledge, and enlightenment.The natural world is full of hidden passages, and dark unknown scientific secrets; Victor's goal as a scientist is to grasp towards the light.Light is a by-product of fire that the monster learned quickly when he is living on his own.The monster experienced fires' duality when he first encountered it in an unattended fire in the woods.He is mesmerized by the fact that fire produces light in the darkness in the woods, but is shocked at the sensation of pain it gives him when he touches it.Victor is defiant of god in the same way that Prometheus was defiant of Zeus.Victor steals the secret of life from god and creates a human out of spare body parts.He does this out of an altruistic wish to spare humankind from the pain and suffering of death.Thus, Victor Frankenstein embodies both aspects of the Promethean myth creation and fire.Victor in a sense has the same experience with the fire of enlightenment similar to his monster; he is "burned" by the fire of enlightenment.Victor also suffers from the classic Greek tragic condition of hubris for his transgression against god and nature.

The book also adopts two other great mythic legends.One is Adam from the Bible.Victor Frankenstein bears striking resemblance to Adam and his fall from grace for eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.The other is Satan, a mythic figure that Shelley admired from her readings in Milton's book Paradise Lost.In an interesting juxtaposition of booth myths, she expands on the motif of the fall from grace in her book when she portrays the monster comparing himself to Adam; after he read, Milton's book Paradise Lost.The monster tells Victor, that he at first identifies with Adam God's first creation."I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence."However, after several incidents of mistreatment that he suffered from the humans he encountered in his travels; the monster soon realized that it is not Adam, the perfect being enjoying the world, which he was most alike.Instead, he came to realize that he most represented Satan.The monster's feelings of hatred and despair stem from the fact that humans found him grotesque to look at and would not accept him as a member of human society.The monster cursed Victor for making a creature so hideous that even his creator turned from him in disgust.Thus, it is obvious for all to see that Shelley's Frankenstein is replete with mythological references and they are central to the plot.

This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities.Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and literature.


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Once viewed solely in relation to the history of feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft is now recognized as a writer of formidable talent across a range of genres, including journalism, letters and travel writing, and is increasingly understood as an heir to eighteenth-century literary and political traditions as well as a forebear of romanticism. This Companion is the first collected volume to address all aspects of Wollstonecraft's momentous and tragically brief career. The diverse and searching essays specially commissioned for this volume do justice to Wollstonecraft's pivotal importance in her own time and since, paying attention not only to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, but to the full range of her work. A chronology and guides to further reading offer further essential information for scholars and students of this remarkable writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Delightful Scholarship
While reading a library's copy of The Cambridge Companion of Mary Wollstonecraft, I was gripped with a desire to own my own copy and promptly ordered it. Having worked with Wollstonecraft material, I found this collection of articles to provide the most informative and best supported coverage of Wollstonecraft's works and thought I have seen as yet. If you need a good scholarly introduction to Wollstonecraft studies, this is an excellent place to start. Claudia L. Johnson has edited an excellent collection of topical articles. ... Read more

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Renewed interest in the life and works of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley has in recent years generated new biographical studies, complete editions of her letters and short stories, and fresh critical assessments of Frankenstein and her other fiction.Until now, however, there has been no anthology of Shelley's work. The Mary Shelley Reader is a unique new collection that fills this gap.In addition to the original and complete 1818 version of her masterpiece Frankenstein, the book offers a new text of the novella Mathilda--an extraordinary tale of incest, guilt, and atonement that was not published until 1959 and has been out of print since then. Also included are seven short stories that range from gentle satire to fantastic tales of reanimation, diabolical transformation, and immortality.Eight essays and reviews are reprinted here for the first time since their original publication, and eleven representative letters help bring to life a remarkable literary and historical figure--author, daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley.An illuminating introduction, a chronology, explanatory notes, and a bibliography make The Mary Shelley Reader indispensable for readers of English Romantic literature. ... Read more

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One murky night in 1816, on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lord Byron, famed English poet, challenged his friends to a contest--to write a ghost story. The assembled group
included the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; his lover (and future wife) Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin; Mary's stepsister Claire Claremont; and Byron's physician, John William Polidori. The famous result was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a work
that has retained its hold on the popular imagination for almost two centuries. Less well-known was the curious Polidori's contribution: the first vampire novel. And the
evening begat a curse, too: Within a few years of Frankenstein's publication, nearly all of those involved met untimely deaths. Drawing upon letters, rarely tapped archives, and their own magisterial rereading of Frankenstein itself, Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler have crafted a rip-roaring tale of obsession and creation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

The monsters were Shelley and Byron
This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. I love biographies, and this one is great. Not only do you learn about Mary Godwin Shelley, but you learn about her parents, her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and his friend Lord Byron.Two bigger despots I have never known--by the end of the book, you will feel you know these two well.I am 61 and have been an English major my whole life. I had heard things about Shelley and Byron, but this spells it out for us. I think both were sociopaths--undeserving of the love given to them and incapable of loving anyone--their wives, children, or anyone really.
The women in this book are very interesting--especially the two Mary's.Do buy the book and do enjoy it!

Monsters of a different kind
The title is a bit misleading -- the curse of Frankenstein? -- whereas the book is essentially a combined biography of Mary Shelley, her parents, her step-sister, Byron, Shelley and the author, unknown to most readers, of an early vampire book. It's fascinating. The depictions of Byron and Shelley arefar removed from those of Romantic image; admiration for them can lie only in their poetry, not their lives. To call them self-absorbed is almost an understatement. Mary, on the other hand, comes off quite well. The book moves quickly. I have only two quibbles. First, "Frankenstein" is not really the point of the book, and it seems that the author has pushed everything into a Proscrustean framework in order to get a title and jacket cover that will lure a potential reader. Second, the author seems immune to using dates for a particular event, which frustrated me time and again. Nonetheless, the book held my attention andenlightened me.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1QA1IMT8J8K8T

No slack cut here
It's axiomatic that genius is often characterized by questionable social skills and/or behavior, and it would appear to hold true in the case of Mary Shelley's circle of family and friends.The Hooblers present unflinching portraits of Mary, her husband Percy, father William Godwin and friend, Lord Byron among others.Mary receives the kindest treatment next to her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft (Author of "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) Both Marys suffer at the hands of the men in their lives, and Mary the younger spends a good deal of time trying to make some sense of that suffering.But the men... they are true pieces of work.They are all selfish, self-centered, arrogant and cruel even in their affections.They seem to have little use for the women in their lives, less for the children they father promiscuously.They live for their "art" and the pleasures it buys them.And in spite of that art, they are not particularly attractive when viewed through this lens.Of the three most prominent women in the book, Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, is the least talented and the most unpalatable thanks mostly to her single-minded pursuit of Lord Byron and her possible romantic involvement with her sister's husband, Percy Shelley.

I picked up the book originally because I have long been fascinated by the events of that "haunted summer" of 1816 when Byron challenged his friends to write a ghost story.The Hooblers present those events as a kind of centerpiece to the larger story of Mary Shelley, beginning with a short but careful examination of her mother's life with an eye to how it affected Mary's life and writing.One is tempted to wonder how Wollstonecraft might have viewed her daughter's elopement with Percy Shelley, and her writing career.As it is her death, not even a fortnight after the birth of her younger daughter, was the first of many losses that informed Mary Shelley's work.And in less than a quarter century, the younger Mary would lose three children, a half-sister, her husband and the love -- such as it was -- of her own father because of her relationship with Shelley.She would be haunted by the suicide of Shelley's first wife, Harriet, and her husband's chronic infidelities, possibly even with Claire.It's no wonder that she produced one of the most memorable horror novels ever penned.

If you ever wondered about the gossip behind Frankenstein...
I bought this book after seeing the movie "Gothic", wondering how many liberties that movie took with the real story. The true story about the five people involved in that summer when Mary Shelley dreamed up the story that became Frankenstein is even better. The incredible gossip-infested lifestyles of these people are far more interesting than any reality TV or scripted drama today. Their personalities shine in this book and you'll learn about fascinating related people that you may not have known about. For example, Dr. Polidori may have set the template for the vampire as we know him in every incarnation today (yeah, I'm even thinking Twilight)! I highly recommend this book for horror fans, literary fans, or anyone just looking for an incredible true story. ... Read more

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Many modern conservatives and feminists trace the roots of their ideologies, respectively, to Edmund Burke (1729-1797) and Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), and a proper understanding of these two thinkers is therefore important as a framework for political debates today.

According to Daniel O'Neill, Burke is misconstrued if viewed as mainly providing a warning about the dangers of attempting to turn utopian visions into political reality, while Wollstonecraft is far more than just a proponent of extending the public sphere rights of man to include women. Rather, at the heart of their differences lies a dispute over democracy as a force tending toward savagery (Burke) or toward civilization (Wollstonecraft). Their debate over the meaning of the French Revolution is the place where these differences are elucidated, but the real key to understanding what this debate is about is its relation to the intellectual tradition of the Scottish Enlightenment, whose language of politics provided the discursive framework within and against which Burke and Wollstonecraft developed their own unique ideas about what was involved in the civilizing process. ... Read more

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The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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Bodleian Library (Oxford)

T178632

With a half-title.Vertical chain lines.

Dublin : printed for J. Jones, 1792. xi,[7],174p. ; 12° ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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THIS 38 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great: Lovers, by Elbert Hubbard. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766104001. ... Read more

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This sourcebook provides the first interdisciplinary guide to the founding text of modern feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.Inaddition to closely annotated key passages of the landmark treatise, this sourcebook also contains letters by Wollstonecraft and her most influential contemporaries, nineteenth-century responses on specific aspects of the text, including slavery, sexuality, religion and sensibility, a contextual chronology, an annotated reading list and substantial introductory materials.This essential guide not only contributes to the understanding of Wollstonecraft's role in the development of the women's movement, but also allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of British literature and politics at the turn of the nineteenth-century, of Romanticism and of the origins of feminism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

First Feminist
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities.Wollstonecraft is not easy to read however, she makes a compelling argument.Mary Wollstonecraft viewed the institution of marriage simply as legal prostitution.She believed this to be the case for several reasons.First, the marriage laws in Britain at the time gave men legal rights over their wives including their property.The law also gave men custody of their children in event of divorce, and a woman could not even obtain a divorce without their husband's consent.For women divorce meant having to leave everything of importance in their lives behind.Thus, Wollstonecraft observed that Britain's laws left women in the unenviable position of being treated as mere chattel by their husbands.Second, Wollstonecraft argued that women's downtrodden position in society was not the cause of religious or moral teachings.She was emphatic in her assessment that it was women's denial of the same educational opportunities that men received that made them seem weak and inferior to men.Finally, she believed marriage only chained women to a life of drudgery in the home.

Armed with this information, Wollstonecraft set out to propose in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women the idea, that equal education for women was the only remedy for this grave injustice perpetrated against them, and education for women would actually strengthen the institution of marriage.She made several prescient arguments to support this idea.First, Wollstonecraft believed schoolchildren needed the contact and interaction with other schoolchildren to develop properly.So, she argued against Britain's system of elitist education, especially its private schools and boarding schools.She advocated for the creation of national public schools, funded by the state, and attended by children from the entire socio-economic strata.Second, she thought it was imperative that both boys and girls must be educated together.The reason Wollstonecraft believed in coeducation, was that when both boys and girls get to know one another from an early age they would in turn, build friendships, and learn to respect one another.Therefore, when women get married, they will be able to serve as companions to their husbands and not just as trophy wives or sexual objects."Nay, marriage will never be held sacred till women, by being brought up with men, are prepared to be their companions rather than their mistresses."Third, Wollstonecraft asked the question, how society could expect mothers to rear healthy boys capable of functioning as confident and productive men in society if their mothers, who raised them, were uneducated.She was horrified to think of the damage already done to children by uneducated, weak-minded mothers.Wollstonecraft articulates in beautiful fashion her argument for the need to educate women in the following quote."If marriage be the cement of society, mankind should all be educated after the same model, or the intercourse of the sexes will never deserve the name of fellowship, nor will women ever fulfill the peculiar duties of their sex."This argument only enhances women's roles as wives and mothers.Finally, Wollstonecraft argued that the implementation of her educational reforms would prove to be a key element leading to the improvement of the institution of marriage in particular, and for family life in general."Contending for the rights of women, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue."

Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and feminism.

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Posthumous Works - of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Mary Wollstonecraft is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Mary Wollstonecraft then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

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Get your "A" in gear!

They're today's most popular study guides-with everything you need to succeed in school. Written by Harvard students for students, since its inception SparkNotes™ has developed a loyal community of dedicated users and become a major education brand. Consumer demand has been so strong that the guides have expanded to over 150 titles.SparkNotes'™ motto is Smarter, Better, Faster because:

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And with everything covered--context; plot overview; character lists; themes, motifs, and symbols; summary and analysis, key facts; study questions and essay topics; and reviews and resources--you don't have to go anywhere else!



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Customer Reviews (2)

Good analysis
I don't advocate reading SparkNotes (or CliffNotes) but if you are a high school/college student with a busy schedule and don't have time to read Shelley's novel, this does give a complete and accurate summary of the book's contents; it also explores the themes and leitmotivs of the novel quite well. I recommend it highly, although I would never recommend reading SparkNotes in place of the novel itself.

Frankenstein!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Frankenstein is an exellent book. I would reccomend it to anyone who likes science,action, and adventure. It is filled with the adventures of Frankenstein and his "creature". I really enjoyed it. You really should read it.


~Taylor ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Amazing Competence of the Monster
Amazing Competence of the Monster: Liberals Encounter Revolutionaries (or Liberals and Counter-Revolutionaries).

Friedrich Nietzsche recalls Napoleon Bonaparte's exclamation, "Voila un home!" after the Emperor's first meeting with Johan Wolfgang von Goethe (in Beyond Good and Evil).In his early forties during the French Revolution, Goethe had been groomed to the literary fashion of the rational, repressed, and scientific Enlightenment. Yet it may be easier to classify Goethe with a later generation, the sensitive, dark, and emotional Romantic Movement. Writing in the 1880's, Nietzsche situated Goethe as a proxy for a rising "spirit of Germany." The ultimate imperialist, Napoleon, had come face to face with this spirit and was impressed to find a man where he "expected only a German."

But during the earliest decades of the century, the romantics still considered Bonaparte to be a defender of the revolution. A corollary moment was frozen in time by Mary Shelley. When the liberals of the enlightenment looked into the face of the radical revolutionary, presumably a monster of their own creation, their response was horror. More important to the point, when a romantic novelist observed this interaction between liberal and radical, what did she perceive? Mary Shelley watched this encounter seeing a frightened and untrustworthy element, the enlightened liberal, who underestimated the value and humanity of his own creation. Shelley accuses these liberals of abandoning the revolution at its most vulnerable stage. If the enlightened liberals did not deserve retribution, they would receive it nonetheless.

Social revolution, one foreseeable outcome of Enlightenment ideas projected onto the surface of aristocratic hegemony, might be blamed by the threatened for chaos, suffering, and mob rule. Yet there is much evidence suggesting Mary Shelley romanticized the revolutionary hero, and damned the enlightened liberals as a class of timid and wavering reactionaries.First, there are contextual clues. Mary Goodwin Shelley, the daughter of the radical anarchist writer William Goodwin, was herself no moderate. Biographical details of her travels, associations and the causes to which she clung indicate very radical leanings. Perhaps more compelling than this kind of external evidence, the narrative structure of Frankenstein suggests that Shelley offers Victor Frankenstein as an unreliable eye witness, himself implicated in the tragic consequences he attributes to the monster.

Initially, the story of the "monster" is told by Dr. Victor Frankenstein. And Victor's narrative is, in turn, relayed by an Englishman, Robert Walton. During the enlightenment, an eyewitness account by a Doctor of Natural Philosophy endorsed by an educated Englishman was formidable surety. Yet, a comparison of Victor's description of the unnamed "monster" with the creature's own account provides more textual clues to Shelley's attack on European liberalism. Readers could rightly expect to encounter an awkward, dull-witted, and withdrawn monster. We are, after all, tricked into this expectation. Shelley provides the first view of the living creature as it was seen through its creator's eyes. Frankenstein recalls that as he awoke from a nightmare:

"I beheld the wretch--the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did nothear; one hand was stretched out seemingly to detain me, but I escaped, and rushed down the stairs" (58)


A reader might reasonably expect to encounter a character from the early films which were influenced by the book, a monster of the "OH GOD IT LIVES" variety. Yet in Frankenstein, when the unnamed "monster" finally steps up to the podium of first person narration in chapter XI, an abrupt reconsideration is demanded.

"It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being: all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct. A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt, at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operation of my various senses."


Within two sentences, the "Monster" has become a someone; "Voila un home!" This sentient being expresses his individual and singular experience, the agony and confusion of achieving consciousness in a world of heat, cold, hunger, thirst, and loneliness. Missing only the sense of taste (a possible pun on the tasteful attitudes of the liberal classes toward the revolting workers) the "creature" emerges into the world already fully grown and alone. The monster's account provides ample evidence of an eloquent and sensitive human being. And Frankenstein's broken promise to provide the "creature" with companionship incited the murderous rampages. Dare we use the descriptors "Heroic" and "Romantic?"

Despite what a reader may learn from Victor Frankenstein's narrative, the "monster" has become competent, articulate, and sensitive.And by comparing this superhuman competence to the timid and unreliable Victor Frankenstein, we can gain an important insight into the attitudes Mary Shelley may have held toward both the reactionary liberal and the emerging revolutionary.
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Customer Reviews (1)

First Feminist
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities.Wollstonecraft is not easy to read however, she makes a compelling argument.Mary Wollstonecraft viewed the institution of marriage simply as legal prostitution.She believed this to be the case for several reasons.First, the marriage laws in Britain at the time gave men legal rights over their wives including their property.The law also gave men custody of their children in event of divorce, and a woman could not even obtain a divorce without their husband's consent.For women divorce meant having to leave everything of importance in their lives behind.Thus, Wollstonecraft observed that Britain's laws left women in the unenviable position of being treated as mere chattel by their husbands.Second, Wollstonecraft argued that women's downtrodden position in society was not the cause of religious or moral teachings.She was emphatic in her assessment that it was women's denial of the same educational opportunities that men received that made them seem weak and inferior to men.Finally, she believed marriage only chained women to a life of drudgery in the home.

Armed with this information, Wollstonecraft set out to propose in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women the idea, that equal education for women was the only remedy for this grave injustice perpetrated against them, and education for women would actually strengthen the institution of marriage.She made several prescient arguments to support this idea.First, Wollstonecraft believed schoolchildren needed the contact and interaction with other schoolchildren to develop properly.So, she argued against Britain's system of elitist education, especially its private schools and boarding schools.She advocated for the creation of national public schools, funded by the state, and attended by children from the entire socio-economic strata.Second, she thought it was imperative that both boys and girls must be educated together.The reason Wollstonecraft believed in coeducation, was that when both boys and girls get to know one another from an early age they would in turn, build friendships, and learn to respect one another.Therefore, when women get married, they will be able to serve as companions to their husbands and not just as trophy wives or sexual objects."Nay, marriage will never be held sacred till women, by being brought up with men, are prepared to be their companions rather than their mistresses."Third, Wollstonecraft asked the question, how society could expect mothers to rear healthy boys capable of functioning as confident and productive men in society if their mothers, who raised them, were uneducated.She was horrified to think of the damage already done to children by uneducated, weak-minded mothers.Wollstonecraft articulates in beautiful fashion her argument for the need to educate women in the following quote."If marriage be the cement of society, mankind should all be educated after the same model, or the intercourse of the sexes will never deserve the name of fellowship, nor will women ever fulfill the peculiar duties of their sex."This argument only enhances women's roles as wives and mothers.Finally, Wollstonecraft argued that the implementation of her educational reforms would prove to be a key element leading to the improvement of the institution of marriage in particular, and for family life in general."Contending for the rights of women, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue."

Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and feminism.

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