Maria Or, The Wrongs of Woman

Mary WollstonecraftProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8

Word count: 260K words
Chapters: 26

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Maria; Or, The Wrongs of Woman by Mary WollstonecraftAuthor: Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Mar 8, 2006

Editor's review

This unfinished novel by Mary Wollstonecraft interweaves letters and narrative to tell of the heroine Maria's entrapment in marriage and her struggle against it. It succeeds not through intricate plot but through sharp social observation and a woman's inner testimony, directly interrogating marriage, property rights, and women's education. Emotionally intense, with argument and narrative interwoven, it conveys both the author's intellectual edge and the distinctive voice of late eighteenth-century women's writing. A key text in the history of feminist thought, it is best read alongside A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, from the dual perspectives of intellectual and literary history. It suits quiet, solitary reading or book-group discussion of marriage, gender, and rights. Note that this is the original English eBook, whose language retains eighteenth-century syntax and usage; non-native readers should consult annotations or a translation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the history of feminist thought who want to trace the early lineage of women's writing
Literature students studying the eighteenth-century English novel and epistolary narrative
Book-group members who want to discuss marriage, property, and gender rights through literature
Humanities enthusiasts with strong English reading skills willing to tackle a classic in the original

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking fast-paced popular fiction with strong suspense
Beginners with weak English who are unused to eighteenth-century syntax and vocabulary
Those who only want Wollstonecraft's ideas and do not want to read literary works
Readers with low tolerance for unfinished works and open endings

Reading tips

Read the key points of Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman first, then this book, for a clearer intellectual thread.
Keep pen and paper to note key arguments about marriage and property, to help sort out the ideas after reading.
With long sentences, read the whole paragraph for its gist first, then return to details, so eighteenth-century syntax does not stall you.
Hold two or three book-group sessions on the heroine's situation, the narrative form, and the social background respectively.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this a complete novel?

It is an unfinished novel; the author died while writing it, and it survives in its extant length and ending. It is therefore open and incomplete; rather than expecting a conventional full resolution, focus on its ideas and narrative experiment.

Can I understand it without having read A Vindication of the Rights of Woman?

You can follow the story, but knowing the basic arguments of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman on women's education, reason, and rights will make the book's critical thrust clearer. At minimum, skim an introduction or summary of that work before reading.

How difficult is the original English?

The text is late eighteenth-century English, with long sentences, vocabulary distant from modern English, and epistolary and argumentative passages. Experienced readers can read it directly; others should use an annotated edition or a translation alongside and read slowly.

Is it suitable as classroom material?

It suits courses on women's literature, the eighteenth-century novel, or intellectual history, but teachers must provide background guidance and language support. Its unfinished form can also serve as a teaching entry point for discussing narrative and authorial intention.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Mary Wollstonecraft Author · United Kingdom · 1759–1797

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was an English writer and philosopher, and one of the founders of feminism. She was born in London on 27 April 1759 and died on 10 September 1797, after childbirth. Her best-known work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), argues that women should enjoy equal rights to education with men and is regarded as a milestone of the women's movement. Her other works include Mary: A Fiction, Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, her love letters to Gilbert Imlay, and a posthumous collection. Her daughter was Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. Her writing spans political argument, fiction and letters, and is marked by a sharp, reflective style that has deeply influenced later debate on women's education and rights.