Rating: WARTY!
This was written in the eighteenth century and published in 1798 the year after the author died. Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the earliest feminists in the UK, and was the mother of Mary Shelly. In a way this is a sort of fictional sequel to an earlier book, Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published six years earlier.
While writing that earlier treatise very quickly, it seems Wollstonecraft struggled with the fictional form, and had not finished it when she died from septicemia after giving birth to Mary in late 1797. Her husband, the philosopher William Godwin cobbled together what she had written and added a commentary here and there explaining that parts were missing and some parts were confused in that Wollstonecraft had perhaps wanted to tell it one way at the beginning, but changed her mind later and told it a different way, but never had the opportunity to go back and correct the earlier part.
The story tells of Maria, and begins an asylum for the insane, where Maria's husband, George Venables has had her placed so he can avail himself of her money. He also took away her child and the child died in his 'care'. The story begins with Maria managing to contact a fellow inmate, Henry Darnford, via an intermediary named Jemima, a helper at the asylum. The two begin by exchanging messages, and then Maria gets access to the man's books and eventually, the man bribes the guards to allow him to meet Maria face to face. This part is fine, but after a short while, the story devolved into a diatribe about the way society demeans and devalues women, and I'm sorry to report that it starts falling apart then.
For me it felt far too preachy - even while it is accurate. It just rambles though, and provides precious little in the way of engagement for the reader. The main character is shown to be weak and easily dominated even as the author tells us she is strong, and in the end, she clings to a man. For me this was the wrong way to write this book, and I felt it cheapened Maria's story and devalued it, which is precisely what society did back then to women - and still does today in far too many ways. This is why I cannot commend this as a worthy read despite my admiration of, and support for, the author.
