Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was the founder of modern feminism -- in her time,the most famous woman in Europe and America. In this exciting new biography, Lyndall Gordon proposes that at each stage of a passionate and courageous life -- as teacher, writer, lover, and traveler -- Mary Woll-stonecraft was an original. She had advanced ideas on education, and her views on single motherhood, family responsibilities, working life, domestic affections, friendships, and sexual relationships now look astonishingly modern. She tested new ways a man and a woman might come to know each other and live together. "Imagination must lead the senses, not the senses the imagination," she told her American lover, Gilbert Imlay, and repeated to her husband, William Godwin.
Vindication is the first biography to show this remarkable woman at full strength and bring out the range as well as the reverberations of her genius in the following and subsequent generations. Here is the drama of Wollstonecraft's life as a governess in an aristocratic family in Ireland, as an independent writer in London, as an on-the-scene observer of the French Revolution, and as a daring traveler to Scandinavia on the trail of an unsolved crime. Although she died young, her spirit and unconventional ideas lived on in the lives of her daughter, Mary Shelley, and three other heirs who had to contend with a counter-revolutionary age. Vindication offers new evidence for the influence of early American political thought in England and demonstrates for the first time the profound effect of Mary Wollstonecraft's own writing, especially her Vindication of the Rights of Woman, on American figures of the day, among them John and Abigail Adams. This groundbreaking biography follows the colorful wheelings and dealings of young American adventurers like Joel Barlowand the elusive frontiersman Imlay, who sought their fortunes amid the tumultuous events of late-eighteenth-century Europe and whose clandestine service to the fledglingAmerican government is newly explored.
This is a brilliantly told story, moving on from the issue of rights to larger questions that still lie beyond us: What is woman's nature? What will she contribute to civilization? Lyndall Gordon mounts a spirited defense of Mary Wollstonecraft, whose previous biographers have often doubted her integrity, her stability, and the exhilarating experiment that was her life. Vindication probes these doubts, measures Wollstonecraft's life against her own strengths instead of the weakness that sometimes held her back, and reinterprets her for the twenty-first century.

Biographies & Memoirs

GORDON, Lyndall

Arts & Literature

Harper

The founder of modern feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was the most famous woman of her era. A brilliant, unconventional rebel vilified for her strikingly modern notions of education, family, work, and personal relationships, she nevertheless strongly influenced political philosophy in Europe and a newborn America. Now acclaimed biographer Lyndall Gordon mounts a spirited defense of this courageous woman whose reputation has suffered over the years by painting a full and vibrant portrait of an extraordinary historical figure who was generations ahead of her time.

Harper-perennial

Cover worn, page edges tanned. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

Charlotte Bronte

RANDOM HOUSE UK

In this beautifully written, eye-opening biography, Lyndall Gordon, author of Charlotte Bronte: A Passionate Life, provides a remarkable portrait of two strongly individual women and their lasting influence on Henry James.

A Private Life of Henry James: Two Women and His Art

Vintage, UK

Shared Lives

Community & Culture

"Lives Like Loaded Guns...reads like a fabulous detective story...[Gordon] takes us into undiscovered territory." —The Washington Post A great companion to fans of the film A Quiet Passion, starring Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson and the new series Dickinson. In 1882, Emily Dickinson's brother, Austin, began an adulterous love affair with the accomplished and ravishing Mabel Todd, setting in motion a series of events that would forever change the lives of the Dickinson family. Award-winning biographer Lyndall Gordon tells the story of the feud that erupted-and that still continues today. Making unprecedented use of letters, diaries, and legal documents, Gordon proposes a groundbreaking new solution to the secret behind the poet's insistent seclusion, presenting a woman beyond her time who found love, spirituality, and immortality all on her own terms. The first major biography of Dickinson in nearly ten years, Lives Like Loaded Guns is a highly acclaimed story of creative genius, illicit passion, and betrayal that will forever change the way we view one of America's most important literary figures.

Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds

Penguin??Books

Eliot's early years (Oxford lives)

Oxford University Press

A biography of the 20th-century's most famous woman writer - winner of the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography.

Virginia Woolf, a Writer's Life

Oxford Univ. Pr.

Eliot's New Life

This is an account of T.S.Eliot's early life and works, which attempts to provide, not only a biographical profile of the poet's early years, but also a critical analysis of the poetry of those years, most notably "The Wasteland". Lyndall Gordon is author of "Virginia Woolf" and "Eliot's New Life". She won the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize 1978, for "Eliot's Early Years".

Eliot's Early Years

Professionals & Academics

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by GORDON, Lyndall. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by GORDON, Lyndall

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by GORDON, Lyndall. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft

Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft

Charlotte Bronte

A Private Life of Henry James: Two Women and His Art

Shared Lives

Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds

Eliot's early years (Oxford lives)

Virginia Woolf, a Writer's Life

Eliot's New Life

Eliot's Early Years