A Different Face: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft

by Emily W. Sunstein

Acknowledgments
Author's Note
Works by Mary Wollstonecraft
The Original Deficit
The Bitter Bread of Dependence
The First of a New Genus
Leaning on a Spear
Home, to Depart No More
Bibliographical References
Notes to Chapters
Index

Genres: Biography

399 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although not especially well written (thus the three stars), I found this biography of Wollstonecraft especially evocative on a personal level. I've read many, many biographies, seeking knowledge of various persons and their times, perhaps some background to their writings. Usually they're appropriated at a distance, evoking emotional response, if at all, like a movie does. Usually, however, it's primarily an intellectual endeavor to read such things--more bricks for the cognitive structure. This, however, was different.

I picked this up because I've been trying to get at the English Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Romantics, people like Wordsworth, Southey and Coleridge, were into exploring human emotions, particularly extreme ones, their literature ranging from pastoral idylls to Gothic horrors. They were, in a sense, at odds with the empiricism and rationalism of the French Encyclopaedists. They were, significantly, precursors to the Spiritualists and the Depth Psychologists.

Wollstonecraft, known for her Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), the only complete piece I'd previously read by her, is treated on a very personal level by the author. Although some historical background is given, most of this study is about the formation of the subject's character and that is documented from her diaries and letters, inferred from her fictions. Characteristic of her milieu, Wollstonecraft is very forthcoming about her feelings. She is also very neurotic, both personally and as a representative of her sex at her time. Her life is therefore treated as an exercise in and exposition of self-therapy.

Whether or not this is an accurate take of Wollstonecraft I'm in no position to judge. It certainly is a plausible one. Wollstonecraft comes across sympathetically and believably. Indeed, to me, she seemed so real that I wanted to comfort her in her extremities of distress--extremities which I found quite pathetic and all too familiar.

[Abigail]

Feminist history of mary wollstonecraft, good for me as i am doing a film on shelley and mary shelley, so the background is essential. then to find this feminist history and how amazing is mary shelley, author of frankenstein, 's mom. a radical writer and liver. presumably sunstein has a book on mary shelley herself and i will get that as well. coincidently in rome of 6 degrees of separation—i meet an old friend lauren sunstein, who lives nearby the american academy and whose mother wrote these books! my copies are from her library.

[Katrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating woman.

Dry book.
Way too much unnecessary information. I’ll be seeking out a better biography of her.