or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
20 used & new from £2.75

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft
 
 

The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft (Paperback)

by Claire Tomalin (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.99
Price: £8.34 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.65 (24%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Friday, November 13? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
12 new from £5.18 8 used from £2.75

Frequently Bought Together

The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft + The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens + Mrs. Jordan's Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King
Price For All Three: £25.10

Show availability and shipping details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens

The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens

by Claire Tomalin
5.0 out of 5 stars (4)  £7.67
Mrs. Jordan's Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King

Mrs. Jordan's Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King

by Claire Tomalin
5.0 out of 5 stars (4)  £9.09
Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life

Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life

by Claire Tomalin
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £8.09
Jane Austen: A Life

Jane Austen: A Life

by Claire Tomalin
4.7 out of 5 stars (15)  £7.67
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Penguin Classics)

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Penguin Classics)

by Mary Wollstonecraft
£5.90
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; 2Rev Ed edition (25 Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140167617
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140167610
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 58,818 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #18 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Literary Studies > 16th to 18th Centuries
    #42 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Women's Studies > Feminist Criticism

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
   Mary Shelley Biography opens new browser window
www.crossref-it.info  -  Mary Shelley's Life and Works Free Access - Get A-Level Help! 
  
 

Product Description

Product Description

Witty, courageous and unconventional, Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the most controversial figures of her day. She published ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’; travelled to revolutionary France and lived through the Terror and the destruction of the incipient French feminist movement; produced an illegitimate daughter; and married William Godwin before dying in childbed at the age of thirty-eight. Often embattled and bitterly disappointed, she never gave up her radical ideas or her belief that courage and honesty would triumph over convention. Winner of the Whitbread First Book Prize in 1974, this haunting biography achieved wide critical acclaim. Writing in the New Statesman, J H Plumb called it, ‘Wide, penetrating, sympathetic. There is no better book on Mary Wollstonecraft, nor is there likely to be’.


About the Author

Claire Tomalin was born in London in 1933. She has worked in publishing and journalism all her life, becoming literary editor first of the New Statesman and then of the Sunday Times, which she left in 1986. She is the author of, among other books: The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft; Shelley and His World Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life; The Invisible Woman and the extraordinarily successful biography of Samuel Pepys. Other books written for Penguin are: Jane Austen: A Life and a collection of memoirs entitled Several Strangers.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The birth of a movement?, 4 Dec 2004
Fascinating story of the life of a strong, complex and tragic figure. Intelligent and highly readable biography. Gives a well-balanced look into both the intellectual and personal life of a woman widely considered to be the first feminist. Inspirational and addictive reading. Highly recommended.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding biography of a fascinating figure, 4 April 2009
By Jonathan Carr "joncarr" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
It's always exciting to open one of Claire Tomalin's books and this is just as good as her books on Jane Austen and Samuel Pepys. Mary's ferocious feminism was centuries before its time, and yet Tomalin shows how everything she said prefigured today's version. This is also a crucial book in the history of ideas. We learn how after Mary's efforts, feminist ideas almost vanished for a century, showing how entire societies can rumble along with literally nobody attempting to change the status quo. We also find that a society can gain important changes, such as the French divorce laws of the time, and then lose it.

Claire Tomalin's extraordinary skill lies in her ability to tell us the personal story of her subject and set it with great sensitivity among the lives of those around her, while capturing the era. Perhaps today Mary's psychological condition would have been medicalised but she was simply incensed that society was so totally arranged in favour of men! Her breathless book, Vindication of the Rights of Women, won her attention and acclaim, but she wanted more, so much more, and became suicidal in the face of constant disappointment. A tremendous sense of the loneliness of people who try to change things comes across in Tomalin's work and the sense of injustice and plain human meanness comes across so clearly.

Perhaps more than her other books, this one shows Claire Tomalin's ability to consider everything and draw conclusions that include the personal, the political, the cultural and even then to transcend those and find more to say about the mysterious way our species changes its ways.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent biography, 8 Sep 2009
By MG (England) - See all my reviews
I have literally just finished reading this book and feel compelled to write a relatively short review. I am left with a feeling of sorrow yet high admiration for Mary Wollstonecraft as a person, her indelible unconventionality, her (shamefully unknown) legacy and her dramatic and tragic life. I say 'shamefully unknown' because, unless one expresses interest in this particular area in history, not many people will know who she is/was.

I am tempted to read some of Tomalin's other books if this one is anything to go by. More than once I had tears in my eyes at the end, that is how much the author pulls you into Mary's life.

All in all, this is an excellent biography, and I'm sure you will agree with me if you read it.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.