The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft by Claire Tomalin

This book was a gift for my 20th birthday and one that I picked for myself. I had heard the name Mary Wollstonecraft come up a lot in my university lectures and readings and she stood out because she was usually the only woman! I knew little about Mary when I first started the biography other than her being the author of The Vindication of the Rights of Women. You might be forgiven for thinking 'isn't that enough?', but I soon found that there was so much more to her than that. 

I was struck instantly by how special Wollstonecraft appeared at such a young age. The book began by offering the reader some background of Mary's family instead of starting at her birth. Tomalin followed a chronological structure throughout the book which really helped to give a sense of Mary's change and development throughout her life. I got to see the growth of her republican views and feminism and really felt as though I got to know her character. 

Tomalin's writing was lively and evocative and her footnotes offered good points of information. At times the focus strayed from Mary to other people she encountered in her life and although the digressions were uselful they quite often went on for too long to the point where I'd forgotten why they were relevant in the first place. Another issue with the writing that I found was that a lot of the primary sources that Tomalin uses are French and were not translated, not even in the footnotes. I might have been able to glean some meaning if it had been only a few lines, but at times whole letter were included. 

All things considered, these are only minor points of annoyance as they generally the book was very good and very well written. It enabled me to see Mary Wollstonecraft as the woman she was. Tomalin's book showed her as a human being, faults and all and for me this was far more extraordinary than the symbol she is often presented as. This book is a wonderful illustration not only of Mary, but also of the revolutionary times she lived in.

Rating: ★★★★★