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  • Published: 5 March 2015
  • ISBN: 9781473521926
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 112

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Vintage Feminism Short Edition)




Discover Wollstonecraft’s classic feminist text in an abridged, digestible form.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ZOE WILLIAMS

The term feminism did not yet exist when Mary Wollstonecraft wrote this book, but it was the first great piece of feminist writing. In these pages you will find the essence of her argument – for the education of women and for an increased female contribution to society. Her work made the first ripples of what would later become the tidal wave of the women’s rights movement. Rationalist but revolutionary, Wollstonecraft changed the world for women.

Vintage Feminism: classic feminist texts in short form

  • Published: 5 March 2015
  • ISBN: 9781473521926
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 112

About the author

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) was an educational, political and feminist writer who early in her life worked as a companion, teacher and governess. In 1788 she settled in London as a translator and reader for the publisher Joseph Johnson, becoming part of the radical set that included Paine, Blake, Godwin and the painter Fuseli. Her great work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was published in 1792. She lived in Paris during the French Revolution and had a child by the American Gilbert Imlay, who deserted her. She returned to London in 1795 and, following her attempted suicide, became involved with Godwin, whom she married in 1797, shortly before the birth (which proved fatal) of her daughter, the future Mary Shelley. She left several unfinished works, including Maria.

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Praise for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Vintage Feminism Short Edition)

Mary Wollstonecraft's words ring as true today - and are as little heeded by government - as when she wrote them, 200 years ago, in her A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Guardian

The first pebble in the later avalanche of the women's rights movement

Melvyn Bragg, Guardian

The first great piece of feminist writing

Independent

Changed the world for generations of women to come

Sunday Times

A book that was bold in its time and is now considered the notable forerunner of the women's movement

New York Times

A radical, rationalist and revolutionary, Wollstonecraft combined faith in both reason and emotion in her seminal work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Sunday Times

Her voice is as fresh and as urgent as ever

Bee Rowlatt, Telegraph

A classic of post-revolutionary thought, shaped by the Enlightenment, Wollstonecraft’s Vindication changed life for women the world over

Guardian