A Vindication of the Rights of Men; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

by Wollstonecraft, Mary; Todd, Janet

• ISBN13: 9780192836526
• ISBN10: 0192836528
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This volume brings together the major political writings of Mary Wollstonecraft in the order in which they appeared in the revolutionary 1790s. It traces her passionate and indignant response to the excitement of the early days of the French Revolution and then her uneasiness at its laterbloody phase. It reveals her developing understanding of women's involvement in the political and social life of the nation and her growing awareness of the relationship between politics and economics and between political institutions and the individual. In personal terms, the works show her struggling with a belief in the perfectibility of human nature through rational education, a doctrine that became weaker under the onslaught of her own miserable experience and the revolutionary massacres. Janet Todd's introduction illuminates the progress of Wollstonecraft's thought, showing that a reading of all three works allows her to emerge as a more substantial political writer than a study of The Rights of Woman alone can reveal.

Author Biography

Janet Todd is Professor of English Literature at the University of East Anglia.

Table of Contents

A Vindication of the Rights of Man

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.