Auckland Council Libraries: The extraordinary life of Mary Wollstonecraft

The extraordinary life of Mary Wollstonecraft

These books highlight the work and life of Mary Wollstonecraft: an eighteenth-century English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Learn more with this selection of books and listen to our Meet a Rare Book podcast.

Vindication of the rights of woman

Mary Wollstonecraft

Book

Wollstonecraft argues that women's education ought to match their position in society. She maintains that women are deserving of the same fundamental rights as men, and that treating them as property of men undermines the moral foundation of society.

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Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark

Mary Wollstonecraft

Book

This was Mary Wollstonecraft's most popular book during her lifetime. Difficult to categorise, it is both an arresting travel book and a moving exploration of her personal and political selves.

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The collected letters of Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft

Book

Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the most distinctive letter writers of the eighteenth century. She talked and thought on paper, and her letters were a large part of the drama of her life.

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Romantic outlaws

Charlotte Gordon

Book

Charlotte Gordon seamlessly weaves the lives of Mary Wollstonecraft, and her daughter Mary Shelley together, taking readers on a vivid journey across Revolutionary France and Victorian England, from the Italian seaports to the highlands of Scotland.

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Vindication

Lyndall Gordon

Book

Lyndall Gordon proposes that at each stage of a passionate and courageous life - as teacher, writer, lover, and traveller - Mary Wollstonecraft was an original.

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The life and death of Mary Wollstonecraft

Claire Tomalin

Book

Witty, courageous, and unconventional, Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the most controversial figures of her day. This haunting biography achieved wide critical acclaim and was the Winner of the Whitbread First Book Prize in 1974.

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Footsteps

Richard Holmes

Book

This is the story of a young English biographer travelling alone through Europe in search of the Romantic writers of the past.

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The future is feminist

Book

A star-studded roster of iconic women write powerfully about what it means to be a feminist yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

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A revolution of feeling

Rachel Hewitt

Book

In the 1790s, British radicals dreamed of founding new political worlds. Utopian projects from optimists sought to reform sex, education, commerce, politics and medicine by revolutionising attitudes to emotions and desires.

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Reflections on the revolution in France

Edmund Burke

eAudiobook

Edmund Burke’s book is a slashing attack on the French Revolution. One month after Burke’s book was published, Wollstonecraft had written her reply in ‘A vindication on the rights of men’ - her first foray into political writing.

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Auckland Council Libraries:Book list Recommended reading lists about different topics and genres to help you find new books to read.