A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Introduction by Barbara Taylor

by Wollstonecraft, Mary; Taylor, Barbara

• ISBN13: 9780679413370
• ISBN10: 0679413375
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-06-02
• Publisher: Everyman's Library

Summary

The first novel of Samuel Beckett's mordant and exhilarating midcentury trilogy introduces us to Molloy, who has been mysteriously incarcerated, and who subsequently escapes to go discover the whereabouts of his mother. In the latter part of this curious masterwork, a certain Jacques Moran is deputized by anonymous authorities to search for the aforementioned Molloy. In the trilogy's second novel, Malone, who might or might not be Molloy himself, addresses us with his ruminations while in the act of dying. The third novel consists of the fragmented monologue -- delivered, like the monologues of the previous novels, in a mournful rhetoric that possesses the utmost splendor and beauty -- of what might or might not be an armless and legless creature living in an urn outside an eating house. Taken together, these three novels represent the high-water mark of the literary movement we call Modernism. Within their linguistic terrain, where stories are taken up, broken off, and taken up again. where voices rise and crumble and are resurrected, we can discern the essential lineaments of our modern condition, and encounter an awesome vision, tragic yet always compelling and always mysteriously invigorating, of consciousness trapped and struggling inside the boundaries of nature.

Author Biography

Katha Pollitt is a poet, essayist, and columnist for The Nation. Author of the recently published Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture, she lives in New York City.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Notes	xxxii
Select Bibliography	xxxv
Chronology	xxxviii
THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN
Author's Introduction	1	(6)
Dedicatory Letter to M. Talleyrand-Perigord	7	(6)
The Rights and Involved Duties of Mankind Considered	13	(8)
The Prevailing Opinion of a Sexual Character Discussed	21	(20)
The Same Subject Continued	41	(15)
Observations on the State of Degradation to which Woman is Reduced by Various Causes	56	(28)
Animadversions on some of the Writers who have Rendered Women Objects of Pity, bordering on Contempt	84	(40)
The Effect which an Early Association of Ideas has upon the Character	124	(7)
Modesty-Comprehensively Considered, and not as a Sexual Virtue	131	(11)
Morality Undermined by Sexual Notions of the Importance of a Good Reputation	142	(10)
Of the Pernicious Effects which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society	152	(11)
Parental Affection	163	(3)
Duty to Parents	166	(6)
On National Education	172	(24)
Some Instances of the Folly which the Ignorance of Women generates; with Concluding Reflections on the Moral Improvement that a Revolution in Female Manners Might Naturally be Expected to Produce	196

Excerpts

Chapter I
The Rights and Involved Duties of Mankind Considered

In the present state of society it appears necessary to go back to first principles in search of the most simple truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice every inch of ground. To clear my way, I must be allowed to ask some plain questions, and the answers will probably appear as unequivocal as the axioms on which reasoning is built; though, when entangled with various motives of action, they are formally contradicted, either by the words or conduct of men.

In what does man’s pre-eminence over the brute creation consist? The answer is as clear as that a half is less than the whole, in Reason.

What acquirement exalts one being above another? Virtue, we spontaneously reply.

For what purpose were the passions implanted? That man by struggling with them might attain a degree of knowledge denied to the brutes, whispers Experience.

Consequently the perfection of our nature and capability of happiness must be estimated by the degree of reason, virtue, and knowledge, that distinguish the individual, and direct the laws which bind society: and that from the exercise of reason, knowledge and virtue naturally flow, is equally undeniable, if mankind be viewed collectively.

The rights and duties of man thus simplified, it seems almost impertinent to attempt to illustrate truths that appear so incontrovertible; yet such deeply rooted prejudices have clouded reason, and such spurious qualities have assumed the name of virtues, that it is necessary to pursue the course of reason as it has been perplexed and involved in error, by various adventitious circumstances, comparing the simple axiom with casual deviations.

Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices, which they have imbibed, they can scarcely trace how, rather than to root them out. The mind must be strong that resolutely forms its own principles; for a kind of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many men shrink from the task, or only do it by halves. Yet the imperfect conclusions thus drawn, are frequently very plausible, because they are built on partial experience, on just, though narrow, views.

Going back to first principles, vice skulks, with all its native deformity, from close investigation; but a set of shallow reasoners are always exclaiming that these arguments prove too much, and that a measure rotten at the core may be expedient. Thus expediency is continually contrasted with simple principles, till truth is lost in a mist of words, virtue, in forms, and knowledge rendered a sounding nothing, by the specious prejudices that assume its name.

That the society is formed in the wisest manner, whose constitution is founded on the nature of man, strikes, in the abstract, every thinking being so forcibly, that it looks like presumption to endeavour to bring forward proofs; though proof must be brought, or the strong hold of prescription will never be forced by reason; yet to urge prescription as an argument to justify the depriving men (or women) of their natural rights, is one of the absurd sophisms which daily insult common sense.

The civilization of the bulk of the people of Europe is very partial; nay, it may be made a question, whether they have acquired any virtues in exchange for innocence, equivalent to the misery produced by the vices that have been plastered over unsightly ignorance, and the freedom which has been bartered for splendid slavery. The desire of dazzling by riches, the most certain pre-eminence that man can obtain, the pleasure of commanding flattering sycophants, and many other complicated low calculations of doting self-love, have all contributed to overwhelm the mass of mankind, and make liberty a convenient handle for mock patriotism. For whilst rank and titles are held of the utmost importance, before which Genius “must hide its diminished head,” it is, with a few exceptions, very unfortunate for a nation when a man of abilities, without rank or property, pushes himself forward to notice. Alas! what unheard-of misery have thousands suffered to purchase a cardinal’s hat for an intriguing obscure adventurer, who longed to be ranked with princes, or lord it over them by seizing the triple crown!


From the Trade Paperback edition.

---

Excerpted from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.