Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

1 review

dark informative sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Maria: or, the Wrongs of Women follows the titular Maria, a middle class woman institutionalized in a private madhouse after fleeing her husband. Her escape from the madhouse occurs right at the portion of the story recorded before the author, Mary Wollstonecraft, died after giving birth to her younger daughter, Mary Shelley, of Frankenstein fame. Her husband, philosopher William Godwin, chose to publish the third or so first draft that was written as well as a few notes about the planned ending.

Due to it's state, I can only recommend this to people with an avid interest in the history of feminism, the lives of women in the past, and philosophers of the later 18th century (Wollstonecraft draws on her life experiences as well as that of women she was close to for many of the misfortunes Maria and other female characters suffer).

This took longer for me to read than a modern 150ish page book would. I don't particularly care for the common prose style of old books, and this one in particular has metaphor laden tangents that I don't think contributed to my understanding of the story's events. In spite of this, I feel the story that we have succeeded in Wollstonecraft's goal of depicting the very legal ways that women could be mistreated in British society at the time with the misfortunes of Maria, as well as the stories of Jemima (a maid at the madhouse who suffered abject poverty because she was born out of wedlock) and the unnamed women that Maria stayed with while trying to flee her husband.

My copy has an introduction to Wollstonecraft's life written by Moira Ferguson, and this was probably my favorite part, so I guess I may have been better served reading a biography about Wollstonecraft.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings