Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics

by Sylvana Tomaselli

A compelling portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft that shows the intimate connections between her life and work

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, first published in 1792, is a work of enduring relevance in women’s rights advocacy. However, as Sylvana Tomaselli shows, a full understanding of Wollstonecraft’s thought is possible only through a more comprehensive appreciation of Wollstonecraft herself, as a philosopher and moralist who deftly tackled major social and political issues and the arguments of such figures as Edmund Burke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith. Reading Wollstonecraft through the lens of the politics and culture of her own time, this book restores her to her rightful place as a major eighteenth-century thinker, reminding us why her work still resonates today.

The book’s format echoes one that Wollstonecraft favored in Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: short essays paired with concise headings. Under titles such as “Painting,” “Music,” “Memory,” “Property and Appearance,” and “Rank and Luxury,” Tomaselli explores not only what Wollstonecraft enjoyed and valued, but also her views on society, knowledge and the mind, human nature, and the problem of evil—and how a society based on mutual respect could fight it. The resulting picture of Wollstonecraft reveals her as a particularly engaging author and an eloquent participant in enduring social and political concerns.

Drawing us into Wollstonecraft’s approach to the human condition and the debates of her day, Wollstonecraft ultimately invites us to consider timeless issues with her, so that we can become better attuned to the world as she saw it then, and as we might wish to see it now.

Genres: Philosophy, Biography, History, Womens, Politics, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

248 pages, Hardcover

Published December 8, 2020

About the author

Sylvana Tomaselli is a historian of political philosophy and intellectual history.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an accessible overview of Wollstonecraft's entire body of work. Wollstonecraft's books and essays are placed in the political context of her time, with the French Revolution playing a big role. Although this wasn't a biography of Wollstonecraft, elements of Wollstonecraft as a person are included: her love of music, poetry, and art; her strong love of physical exercise (mostly walking/hiking); and how she was affected by becoming a mother. I really enjoyed how Tomaselli showed the ways in which Wollstonecraft wrestled with Big Ideas by engaging with current works by Adam Smith, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Edmund Burke and how her ideas were so compelling that they could not be ignored even though she was a woman. I learned for the first time about Olympe De Gouges, a French woman who, like Wollstonecraft, advocated for the rights of women through essays and other writing. She died by the guillotine during the French Revolution. Highly recommend this book.

[C.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book to consolidate all I have read of Wollstonecraft thus far. Tomaselli summarizes Wollstonecraft's philosophy in neat sections within four (main) broader chapters. Having read all of Wollstonecraft's original published works, I found Tomaselli's discernment in topics and extracts very sound; this is a great text for those looking for an easy-to-read introduction to Wollstonecraft's thoughts on a wide array of subjects. I appreciated that she pulled from more than just Wollstonecraft's well-known works, using resources such as Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, her posthumous works, ect. to reveal a holistic view of Wollstonecraft's dynamic philosophy throughout her short life. I only had one point of disagreement with one of Tomaselli's assessments: the claim that Wollstonecraft failed to 'confin[e] her critique "to the grand principles at which he [Edmund Burke] has levelled so many ingenious arguments in a very specious garb" in her Vindication of the Rights of Men. Tomaselli faults Wollstonecraft for directly examining Burke's character in her response to his Reflections on the French Revolution as if character should be detached from politics and is irrelevant to the 'grand principles' her text advocates. I agree with Tomaselli that Wollstonecraft 'related the personal to the political' (emphasis on the word 'related') but not that she 'treated the two as one.' Rather, I think she related all her philosophical thought, and by extension, her writings, to morality; to virtue; to the possibility of a steadfast inner compassion. All other thought and action should ideally stem from an individual's sense of virtue, as in benevolence to humanity and truth; any other thought and action may include something as broad as politics, to something as personal as family affairs but the base remains fixed. The ultimate guiding compass for Wollstonecraftian thought is virtue, and that begins with the individual self. Therefore, I find no fault in her criticizing Burke's character directly because I can't imagine that she would not find the moral character of a politician especially important to consider in view of the potential societal shifts politics can pose. Any political shift has the potential to affect the lives of a large number of people. With this said, one's private moral character is equally important to consider as the public moral character in such a text; but the personal is moral first, and politics is merely an extension of this. The primary basis of all is always virtue because it is the grand principle. In her own words, from Vindication of the Rights of Woman: 'The being who can govern itself, has nothing to fear in life; but if any thing is dearer than its own respect, the price must be paid to the last farthing. Virtue, like every thing valuable, must be loved for herself alone; or she will not take up her abode with us.'

[Ellen Cutler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a book for the casual reader, "Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics" by Sylvana Tomaselli is a wonderful resource for those of us who never get beyond her book, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. With Strictures on political and moral subjects," and the fact her second daughter was Mary Godwin who married Percy Bysshe Shelley and wrote "Frankenstein or A Modern Prometheus."

This fairly slim volume (211+ pages and dense with footnotes) not only summarizes the writings of this remarkable woman but places them securely in the context of Enlightenment thinking and the intellectual context of 18th century Europe. I kept thinking about Emma Willard who founded a secondary school for girls in 1814, and where I was educated in Troy, New York, from 1965 t0 1969. A massive history of the school was published to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding: "Wrought with steadfast will : a history of Emma Willard School" by Trudy J. Hamner. WWSW is a doorstop of a book, and it walks some narrow lines as the definitive history of a school with a fraught past, but its discussion of social attitudes, women's education and the idea of Republican womanhood in the first half of the 19th century was riveting.

But back to Mary Wollstonecraft.

Tomaselli has wisely, I think, stayed out of the quagmire of biography. The facts of her life--when born, when died, work experiences, key personal relationships and the existence of two daughters--pique the interest and made this reader think that reading a true biography might be a good thing. Probing Wollstonecraft's vision of the world, what she understood in her present and what she imagined in the future, was powerful and felt quite contemporary. There are four long chapters--sections really--plus a thorough introduction and epilogue. The first section starts with her "passions": "What She Liked and Loved. Tomaselli starts by situating MW as a woman of powerful intellect and deep feeling. Her dedication to these subjects is the framework and foundation for all the positions she explored in her writing.

Chapter two, "Who Are we? What Are We Made Of" is therefore her philosophy. What is the nature of humanity, our failures as individuals and nations in the past, the potential for fulfillment in the future. Those speculations lead directly to chapter three, "What Went Wrong? The World as It Was." This was a deep dive into her critique of western society and economies and the "truths" that she believed had led us all astray.

Chapter four is an inspiring look forward: "What She Wished and Wanted." It is here that we see MW struggling to reconcile the multitude of contradictions in human nature and posit paths that could lead us forward, again as individuals, genders, societies and nations.

For anyone who is reading up on the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of feminism and the rise of suffragism, this is just a wonderful piece of writing. All the divergent strands from Edmund Burke and Adam Smith to Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other towering figures are knit together as Tomaselli analyzes MW's views and critiques (both fair and unfair) of them.

Not a beach read, for sure, but so very satisfying.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really shouldve skimmed this bc i need to lock in but i was lowkey hooked lmao

[Mary Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rather esoteric book about an enigmatic, erudite and articulate woman was enjoyable and very informative. The book is set up in the form of essays, which makes it an accessible way to learn about the different areas of Wollstonecraft’s life, work and ideas.