Susan J. Wolfson is professor of English at Princeton University. An expert on the British Romantic era, she is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Wolfson’s recent books include A Greeting of the Spirit (2022), Romantic Shades and Shadows (2018), and Reading John Keats (2015), as well as annotated editions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (2012) and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (2014).

Mary Wollstonecraft helped us to understand how easily the rights of women can vanish from the political and social scene and how ‘natural’ it can seem for men and women to ignore them. This remarkable book not only situates Wollstonecraft in history but also shows in detail how she altered history by writing so well.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsMy Texts, Abbreviations, and Short TitlesPrologue: Why Mary Wollstonecraft? Why A Vindication?1. How Mary Wollstonecraft Became “the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman”2. Picturing Mary Wollstonecraft: The Right Woman3. “An Amazon stept out”: A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790)4. “Revolution in female manners”: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792)5. Dystopian Nightmare: Paris, December 26, 17926. “Bastilled . . . for life”: The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria; a Fragment (1798)Epilogue: “we hear her voice”Brief Glossary of Recurring NamesNotesFurther Reading and BibliographiesIndex

Susan J. Wolfson is professor of English at Princeton University. An expert on the British Romantic era, she is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Wolfson’s recent books include A Greeting of the Spirit (2022), Romantic Shades and Shadows (2018), and Reading John Keats (2015), as well as annotated editions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (2012) and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (2014).

Mary Wollstonecraft helped us to understand how easily the rights of women can vanish from the political and social scene and how ‘natural’ it can seem for men and women to ignore them. This remarkable book not only situates Wollstonecraft in history but also shows in detail how she altered history by writing so well.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsMy Texts, Abbreviations, and Short TitlesPrologue: Why Mary Wollstonecraft? Why A Vindication?1. How Mary Wollstonecraft Became “the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman”2. Picturing Mary Wollstonecraft: The Right Woman3. “An Amazon stept out”: A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790)4. “Revolution in female manners”: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792)5. Dystopian Nightmare: Paris, December 26, 17926. “Bastilled . . . for life”: The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria; a Fragment (1798)Epilogue: “we hear her voice”Brief Glossary of Recurring NamesNotesFurther Reading and BibliographiesIndex

Susan J. Wolfson is professor of English at Princeton University. An expert on the British Romantic era, she is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Wolfson’s recent books include A Greeting of the Spirit (2022), Romantic Shades and Shadows (2018), and Reading John Keats (2015), as well as annotated editions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (2012) and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (2014).

Mary Wollstonecraft helped us to understand how easily the rights of women can vanish from the political and social scene and how ‘natural’ it can seem for men and women to ignore them. This remarkable book not only situates Wollstonecraft in history but also shows in detail how she altered history by writing so well.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsMy Texts, Abbreviations, and Short TitlesPrologue: Why Mary Wollstonecraft? Why A Vindication?1. How Mary Wollstonecraft Became “the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman”2. Picturing Mary Wollstonecraft: The Right Woman3. “An Amazon stept out”: A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790)4. “Revolution in female manners”: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792)5. Dystopian Nightmare: Paris, December 26, 17926. “Bastilled . . . for life”: The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria; a Fragment (1798)Epilogue: “we hear her voice”Brief Glossary of Recurring NamesNotesFurther Reading and BibliographiesIndex