Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus has thrilled generations of readers for over two hundred years.

- Rediscover Mary Shelley's compelling masterwork in this elegant yet affordable Masterpiece Library Edition, honoring the Peter Pauper Press founders' tradition of publishing beautiful books.
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- A must-have for every home library.
- 220 pages.

English novelist Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) wrote Frankenstein during a summer spent near Lake Geneva, Switzerland, with her betrothed, Percy Bysshe Shelley, her stepsister Claire Clairmont, poet George Gordon Byron, and Lord Byron's physician, John William Polidari. Inclement weather kept the group indoors and they challenged one another to create fantastic tales. Shelley's was the result of a haunting vision: ''I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together.''

First published in 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was an instant success, turning its thirty-three-year-old author into a minor celebrity. A pioneering work of early feminism that extends to women the Enlightenment principle of the rights of man, its argument remains as relevant today as it was for Woll-stonecraft's contemporaries. Mary Wollstonecraft was not the first writer to call for women to receive a real, challenging education, writes Katha Pollitt in the new Introduction. But she was the first to connect the education of women to the transformation of women's social position, of relations between the sexes, and even of society itself. She was the first to argue that women's intellectual equality would and should have actual consequences. The winds of change sweep through her pages.

This classic work of early feminism remains as relevant and passionate today as it was for Wollstonecraft's contemporaries. This edition includes new explanatory notes.

This volume brings together extracts of the major political writings of Mary Wollstonecraft in the order in which they appeared in the revolutionary 1790s. It traces her passionate and indignant response to the excitement of the early days of the French Revolution and then her uneasiness at its later bloody phase. It reveals her developing understanding of women's involvement in the political and social life of the nation and her growing awareness of the relationship between politics and economics and between political institutions and the individual. In personal terms, the works show her struggling with a belief in the perfectibility of human nature through rational education, a doctrine that became weaker under the onslaught of her own miserable experience and the revolutionary massacres.

Janet Todd's introduction illuminates the progress of Wollstonecraft's thought, showing that a reading of all three works allows her to emerge as a more substantial political writer than a study of The Rights of Woman alone can reveal.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had brought revolution to America and France, Mary Wollstonecraft produced her own declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate and forthright, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman attacked the prevailing view of docile, decorative femininity, and instead laid out the principles of emancipation: an equal education for girls and boys, an end to prejudice, and for women to become defined by their profession, not their partner. Mary Wollstonecraft's work was received with a mixture of admiration and outrage - Walpole called her 'a hyena in petticoats' - yet it established her as the mother of modern feminism.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

In an era of revolutions demanding greater liberties for mankind, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an ardent feminist who spoke eloquently for countless women of her time.
Having witnessed firsthand the devastating results of male improvidence, she assumed an independent role early in life, educating herself and eventually earning a living as a governess, teacher and writer. She was also an esteemed member of the radical intellectual circle that included William Godwin (father of her daughter, novelist Mary Godwin Shelley, and later her husband), Thomas Paine, William Blake, Henry Fuseli and others.
First published in 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman created a scandal in its day, largely, perhaps, because of the unconventional lifestyle of its creator. Today, it is considered the first great manifesto of women's rights, arguing passionately for the education of women: Tyrants and sensualists are in the right when they endeavor to keep women in the dark, because the former want only slaves, and the later a plaything.
No narrow-minded zealot, Wollstonecraft balanced passionate advocacy with a sympathetic warmth -- a characteristic that helped her ideas achieve widespread influence. Anyone interested in the history of the women's rights movement will welcome this inexpensive edition of one of the landmark documents in the struggle for human dignity, freedom and equality.

Mary Wollstonecraft is best known for her pioneering views on the rights of women to share equal rights and opportunities with men. They are expressed here in two novels in which heroines have to rely on their own resources to establish their independence and intellectual development. Strongly autobiographical, both novels powerfully complement Wollstonecraft's non-fictional writing, inspired by the French Revolution and the social upheavals that followed.
New to this edition is a completely rewritten introduction that incorporates the latest scholarship and features a consideration of the social formation of Wollstonecraft as a Revolutionary feminist and her literary-political career, as well as a critical account of the two novels. A new bibliography includes all the latest critical writing on Wollstonecraft, while heavily revised notes link her fiction to her extensive reading, her other writings and major events and issues of the day. In addition, the text has been completely reset, making it easier on the eyes. It is by far the highest quality edition available, and a great choice for readers interested in pre-Victorian literature and feminist history.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

This engaging volume was pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft's most popular book during her lifetime. Difficult to categorize, it is both an arresting travel book and a moving exploration of her personal and political selves. Wollstonecraft set out for Scandinavia just two weeks after her first suicide attempt, on a mission from the lover whose affections she doubted, to recover his silver on a ship that had gone missing. With her baby daughter and a nursemaid, she traveled across the dramatic landscape and wrote sublime descriptions of the natural world, and the events and people she encountered. Fascinating appendices include Imlay's commission to recover his lost silver, Wollstonecraft's recently discovered letter to the Danish Prime Minister asking for assistance, the private letters she wrote to Imlay during her travels in Scandinavia, a chapter from Godwin's memoir of Wollstonecraft, and a selection of contemporary reviews.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Her story of a woman incarcerated in a madhouse by her abusive husband dramatizes the effect of the English marriage laws, which made women virtually the property of their husbands. Left uncompleted at Wollstonecraft's early death, Maria remains a powerful work of propaganda, a unique picture of women's status in eighteenth-century England.

Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), a ground-breaking work advocating for women's education and equality. In it, she argues that women should have the same opportunities as men, emphasizing reason and virtue as the foundation for true independence. It remains a key text in feminist philosophy

A FEMINIST CLASSIC

This classic 1792 political treatise by British writer Mary Wollstonecraft argues that women should be treated with equal dignity and respect to men, especially regarding education. It was instrumental in laying the foundation for the women's suffrage and feminist movements. Her trailblazing work posits that the educational system deliberately trained women to be frivolous and incapable.

Wollstonecraft's goal was not to undermine the role of women in the home as she pointed out that if girls were allowed the same advantages as boys, women would not only be exceptional wives and mothers, but they would also be capable workers. She encouraged society to see them as a valuable resource and called for women and men to be educated equally for without an education, women are merely men's slaves and playthings-not the intelligent, rational companions of a just and equal society.

...Effect a revolution in female manners...restore to them their lost dignity...as a part of the human species...reforming themselves to reform the world.

Tackling many of the punitive patriarchal attitudes that dominated eighteenth-century society, she launched a broad attack against sexual double standards, urging women to prioritize reason over emotion to break free from male notions of female fragility and foolishness. This, her signature, classic work of early feminism remains as relevant today as it was when first released and an essential text in feminist literature.

, MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT died in 1797 at age 38, eleven days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who would become a noted writer herself, as the author of Frankenstein.

Mary Woolstonecroft is now regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and her writings are a key voice in a feminist conversation that still continues today. Writing in a time when men were asserting their rights in revolutions in America and France, Wollstonecraft produced her own declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate, eloquent and forthright, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman launched a scathing attack on the understanding of women - as docile, domestic figures - and instead laid out the tenets for a new vision. An equal education for girls and boys, an end to prejudice and a chance for women to become defined by their profession, not their partner, were all some of Wollstonecraft's ideas. Whereas Mary Wollstonecraft's work was received at the time with a mixture of admiration and outrage, she is now rightly viewed as a powerful matriarch of modern feminism.

This book is part of a range of highly designed fiction and non-fiction classics. With bold, eye-catching graphic covers by Evi O Studio, this collection aims to introduce a selection of the most celebrated works of the last thousand years to a new audience. Featuring tales of adventure, fiction from the 19th and 20th centuries, feminist writings, and reflections on art, politics, philosophy and the origins of man, this is a small, wide-reaching and essential collection.

Evi O Studio is led by Evi, a designer with over 10 years' industry experience. She has worked as a designer at Penguin Books, and her work has won a number of publishing and design awards, including Young Designer of the Year and Book of the Year. Evi is also a well-known artist, exhibiting her abstract paintings regularly in Sydney and Melbourne.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman By Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft wrote Vindication of the Rights of Woman in response to public debate and discussion about the education of women. She argues that women should be educated according to their station, and that they could be more than mere wives to their husbands and educators to their children. The text is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy.

Here, in one volume, are two classic treatises on individual freedom and inherent human worth from one of the most important--and most overlooked--thinkers of the late 18th century. Revolutionary in all senses of the word, A Vindication of the Rights of Man, first published in 1790, and A Vindication of the Rights of Women, which followed two years later, were written against the background of the French Revolution, the debate over which caused an uproar in both England and France. In passionate and beautifully witty language, Wollstonecraft rebukes the crumbling and ineffectual traditions that allowed rich men to dominate society, and offers a stirring call for a new kind of culture, one in which all citizens--men and women, moneyed and working class--are granted equal opportunity to access wealth both material and spiritual. Well received in their day and still important resources for anyone wishing to understand the history of feminism as well as the development of liberal republican thought in the wake of the American and French revolutions, these are must-reads for students of cultural history. British writer and educator MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (1759-1797), the mother of Frankenstein author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, espoused her then-radical feminist and liberal philosophies in other such works as Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) and History and Moral View of the Origins and Progress of the French Revolution (1793).

These three works of fiction - two by Mary Wollstonecraft, the radical author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and one by her daughter Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein - are powerfully emotive stories that combine passion with forceful feminist argument. In Mary Wollstonecraft's Mary, the heroine flees her young husband in order to nurse her dearest friend, Ann, and finds genuine love, while Maria tells of a desperate young woman who seeks consolation in the arms of another man after the loss of her child. And Mary Shelley's Matilda - suppressed for over a century - tells the story of a woman alienated from society by the incestuous passion of her father. Humane, compassionate and highly controversial, these stories demonstrate the strongly original genius of their authors.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Mary Wollstonecraft was born on 27th April 1759 in Spitalfields, London. Although her family had a comfortable income much was squandered by her father leading the family to become financially diminished. Wollstonecraft struck out on her own in 1778 and accepted a job as a lady's companion. Frustrated by the limited career options open to respectable yet poor women, she nonetheless decided to embark upon a career as an author. At the time, few women could support themselves by writing.

She learned French and German and translated texts. She also wrote reviews, primarily of novels, for Johnson's periodical, the Analytical Review.

Wollstonecraft also pursued a relationship with the artist Henry Fuseli. Boldly she proposed a platonic living arrangement with Fuseli and his wife. Fuseli's wife was shocked and the relationship was severed.

In December 1792 she left for France to view first hand the revolutionary events that she had just celebrated in her recent 'Vindication of the Rights of Men' (1790) and that had brought her immediate fame.

France declared war on Britain in February 1793 and Wollstonecraft tried to leave for Switzerland but was denied permission. Despite her sympathy for the revolution, life for Wollstonecraft was very uncomfortable.

Having just written the 'Rights of Woman', Wollstonecraft determined to put her ideas to the test. She alighted on and fell passionately in love with Gilbert Imlay, an American diplomat and adventurer. By now she was disillusioned by the Revolution's path. She thought the republic behaved slavishly to those in power while the government was 'venal' and 'brutal'. To protect Wollstonecraft from the prospect of arrest, Imlay made a false statement to the U.S. embassy in Paris that he had married her, automatically making her an American citizen. Wollstonecraft, now pregnant by Imlay, gave birth to her first child, Fanny, on 14th May 1794. She was overjoyed.

The winter of 1794-95 was the coldest winter in over a century. Wollstonecraft and Fanny were reduced to desperate circumstances. Wollstonecraft now had to risk leaving France and did so on 7th April 1795. She sought Imlay out but he was impassive to her pleas. In May 1795 she attempted to commit suicide, but it is thought Imlay saved her life. But it was now certain that her relationship with Imlay was over. She attempted suicide for a second time but a passing stranger witnessed her jump into the Thames and rescued her.

Gradually, Wollstonecraft returned to literary life, and to a relationship with William Godwin. Once Wollstonecraft became pregnant by him, they decided to marry so that the child would be legitimate.

On 30th August 1797, Wollstonecraft gave birth to her second daughter, Mary. During the delivery the placenta broke apart and became infected. After several days of agony, Mary Wollstonecraft died of septicemia on 10th September 1797.

Mary Wollstonecraft was born on 27th April 1759 in Spitalfields, London. Although her family had a comfortable income much was squandered by her father leading the family to become financially diminished. Wollstonecraft struck out on her own in 1778 and accepted a job as a lady's companion. Frustrated by the limited career options open to respectable yet poor women, she nonetheless decided to embark upon a career as an author. At the time, few women could support themselves by writing.

She learned French and German and translated texts. She also wrote reviews, primarily of novels, for Johnson's periodical, the Analytical Review.

Wollstonecraft also pursued a relationship with the artist Henry Fuseli. Boldly she proposed a platonic living arrangement with Fuseli and his wife. Fuseli's wife was shocked and the relationship was severed.

In December 1792 she left for France to view first hand the revolutionary events that she had just celebrated in her recent 'Vindication of the Rights of Men' (1790) and that had brought her immediate fame.

France declared war on Britain in February 1793 and Wollstonecraft tried to leave for Switzerland but was denied permission. Despite her sympathy for the revolution, life for Wollstonecraft was very uncomfortable.

Having just written the 'Rights of Woman', Wollstonecraft determined to put her ideas to the test. She alighted on and fell passionately in love with Gilbert Imlay, an American diplomat and adventurer. By now she was disillusioned by the Revolution's path. She thought the republic behaved slavishly to those in power while the government was 'venal' and 'brutal'. To protect Wollstonecraft from the prospect of arrest, Imlay made a false statement to the U.S. embassy in Paris that he had married her, automatically making her an American citizen. Wollstonecraft, now pregnant by Imlay, gave birth to her first child, Fanny, on 14th May 1794. She was overjoyed.

The winter of 1794-95 was the coldest winter in over a century. Wollstonecraft and Fanny were reduced to desperate circumstances. Wollstonecraft now had to risk leaving France and did so on 7th April 1795. She sought Imlay out but he was impassive to her pleas. In May 1795 she attempted to commit suicide, but it is thought Imlay saved her life. But it was now certain that her relationship with Imlay was over. She attempted suicide for a second time but a passing stranger witnessed her jump into the Thames and rescued her.

Gradually, Wollstonecraft returned to literary life, and to a relationship with William Godwin. Once Wollstonecraft became pregnant by him, they decided to marry so that the child would be legitimate.

On 30th August 1797, Wollstonecraft gave birth to her second daughter, Mary. During the delivery the placenta broke apart and became infected. After several days of agony, Mary Wollstonecraft died of septicemia on 10th September 1797.

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
The Age of Enlightenment profoundly enriched religious and philosophical understanding and continues to influence present-day thinking. Works collected here include masterpieces by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as religious sermons and moral debates on the issues of the day, such as the slave trade. The Age of Reason saw conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism transformed into one between faith and logic -- a debate that continues in the twenty-first century.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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British Library

T050212



London: printed for J. Johnson, 1787. iv,160p.; 8

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, authored by Mary Wollstonecraft stands as a pioneering work in feminist philosophy and advocacy. In this groundbreaking text, Wollstonecraft passionately argues for the education and empowerment of women, challenging the societal norms that confine them to subservient roles.

Through eloquent prose and incisive reasoning, she critiques the prevailing attitudes of her time, asserting that women are not inherently inferior to men but are instead denied the opportunities for intellectual and moral development. Wollstonecraft's work is not merely a call for women's rights; it is a profound exploration of the interconnectedness of gender, politics, and morality.

She emphasizes the importance of reason and virtue, advocating for a society where women can contribute meaningfully to the public sphere. By addressing issues such as marriage, education, and the nature of virtue, Wollstonecraft lays the groundwork for future feminist thought, making her arguments both timeless and relevant.

This text invites readers to reflect on the fundamental principles of equality and justice, urging a reevaluation of the roles assigned to women in society. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman remains a vital and inspiring manifesto, encouraging generations to strive for a more equitable world.

Mary Wollstonecraft is remembered principally as the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), and there has been a tendency to view her most famous work in isolation. Yet Wollstonecraft's pronouncements about women grew out of her reflections on men, and her views on the female sex constituted an integral part of a wider moral and political critique of her times that she first fully formulated in A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790). This fully annotated edition brings these two works together.