Reading Order
The Wrongs of Woman Reading Order
The Wrongs of Woman; or, Maria (1798) by Mary Wollstonecraft is her unfinished posthumous novel — published by Godwin after Wollstonecraft's death in childbirth — and the fictional companion to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Where the Vindication argued philosophically that women's weakness was the product of defective education and social condition, The Wrongs of Woman illustrated those arguments through concrete fiction: Maria, a woman of intelligence and sensibility, has been imprisoned in a private madhouse by her husband (who wants control of her fortune and her daughter) and there meets Jemmy, a poor woman whose degradation by poverty and male violence shows that women's oppression operates across class lines. The novel introduces a third narrator for Jemmy's story and was designed to have multiple frames, but Wollstonecraft died before completing it; Godwin published it with three alternative endings. The novel is remarkable for its direct engagement with the legal system's treatment of married women (the Married Women's Property Act, which would change the laws Wollstonecraft describes, was not passed until 1882), for its frank treatment of female sexuality, and for its extension of the Vindication's feminist argument into the lives of working-class women as well as the educated women Wollstonecraft primarily addressed in the earlier text.
Where to start
The Wrongs of Woman; or, Maria (1798) — the Oxford World's Classics edition of Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (ed. Miriam Brody) includes The Wrongs of Woman in the same volume, which is the ideal pairing. The Penguin Classics edition edited by Gary Kelly includes it with Mary: A Fiction and other early works. Read the Vindication first; The Wrongs of Woman is the fiction that illustrates the philosophical argument.
Complete The Wrongs of Woman Book List
- 1Buy
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (with The Wrongs of Woman)
Mary Wollstonecraft (ed. Miriam Brody)·2008·The ideal edition — reading the Vindication (the philosophical argument) and The Wrongs of Woman (the fictional illustration) in the same volume is the best way to understand Wollstonecraft's full project; Brody's introduction covers both works. - 2Buy
Mary: A Fiction and The Wrongs of Woman (Penguin Classics)
Mary Wollstonecraft (ed. Gary Kelly)·1991·The best edition for reading Wollstonecraft's fiction as a group — Kelly's introduction traces the relationship between Wollstonecraft's life, her politics, and her fiction; includes the alternative endings Godwin published. - 3Buy
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life
Janet Todd·2000·The standard modern biography — Todd's account of the composition of The Wrongs of Woman (written during Wollstonecraft's pregnancy with Mary Shelley) and of Godwin's decisions in preparing the posthumous edition is essential context. - 4Buy
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley·1818·Wollstonecraft's daughter, born when The Wrongs of Woman was being written, produced the century's greatest Gothic novel; the creature's persecution and exclusion echo Maria's imprisonment, and Frankenstein is in many ways the Wollstonecraft tradition carried into the next generation. - 5Buy
The Story of an African Farm
Olive Schreiner·1883·The Victorian feminist novel that most powerfully inherits The Wrongs of Woman's tradition — Schreiner's Lyndall is the first feminist heroine of Victorian fiction to articulate explicitly the systemic nature of women's oppression; reading alongside Wollstonecraft shows the tradition she initiated.
The Wrongs of Woman — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft about?
The Wrongs of Woman; or, Maria (1798) by Mary Wollstonecraft is an unfinished posthumous novel published by Godwin after her death. Maria, a woman of intelligence and sensibility, has been imprisoned in a private madhouse by her husband to gain control of her fortune. There she meets Jemmy, a poor woman whose life story of poverty and male violence shows how women's oppression operates across class lines. The novel illustrates concretely the arguments of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792): the legal system's treatment of married women, the impossibility of escape from an abusive marriage, and the solidarity possible between women across class difference.
How is The Wrongs of Woman related to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman?
The Wrongs of Woman (1798) is the fictional complement to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792): where the Vindication argues philosophically that women's weakness is the product of defective education and social institutions, The Wrongs of Woman illustrates those abstract arguments through the concrete experience of Maria's imprisonment, the legal system's treatment of married women, and the class analysis of Jemmy's story. Wollstonecraft designed the novel to show that the Vindication's arguments applied not only to the educated women she primarily addressed in that text, but also to working-class women whose oppression was even more materially concrete.
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