The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft

Once viewed solely in relation to the history of feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft is now recognised 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. The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft is the first collected volume to address all aspects of Wollstonecraft’s momentous and tragically brief career. The diverse and searching essays 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 also to the full range of her work across disciplinary boundaries separating philosophy, letters, education, advice, politics, history, religion, sexuality, and feminism itself. A chronology and bibliography offer further essential information for scholars and students of this remarkable writer.

• First collected volume to consider the full range of Wollstonecraft’s work and its significance in its own time and since • All essays specially commissioned from leading Wollstonecraft scholars across the world • Accessibility at undergraduate, graduate and scholar level, illuminating the work of a remarkable writer at all levels

Chronology; Introduction Claudia L. Johnson; 1. Mary Wollstonecraft’s letters Janet Todd; 2. Mary Wollstonecraft on education Alan Richardson; 3. Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindications and their political tradition Chris Jones; 4. Mary Wollstonecraft’s French Revolution Tom Furniss; 5. Mary Wollstonecraft’s literary reviews Mitzi Myers; 6. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and the religious foundations of Mary Wollstonecraft’s feminism Barbara Taylor; 7. Mary Wollstonecraft and the literature of advice and instruction Vivien Jones; 8. Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman and the woman writers of her day Anne K. Mellor; 9. Mary Wollstonecraft and the poets Susan J. Wolfson; 10. Mary Wollstonecraft’s novels Claudia L. Johnson; 11. The art of travelling in Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark Mary A. Favret; 12. Mary Wollstonecraft and the sexuality of genius Andrew Elfenbein; 13. Mary Wollstonecraft’s reception and legacies Cora Kaplan.

\'This is a valuable addition to Wollstonecraft studies, which will also be of interest to scholars of sensibility …\'. Susan Manly, University of St Andrews, Bars Bulletin & Review