Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Wrongs of Woman

1798, published posthumously by husband William Godwin
Mary Wollstonecraft
The Wrongs of Woman: Or, Maria
B-

Although this is in some ways as depressing as Mary, A Fiction, it has more raw emotion and a stronger sense of the, well, wrongs of woman.  The intervening decade between her two novels had both politicised Wollstonecraft and put her through a lot of emotional drama.  This novel was not quite finished (there's at least one subplot left conspicuously dangling), but as it stands it's a promising tragedy.  My favorite moment is at the end, when the hypocritical judge worries that it would set a bad precedent if women had more say in divorce.

Overall, weighting the shorter works less, this collection averages out to a B-.

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