Mother of Frankenstein

Book excerpt: THE SEMINAL, UNFINISHED WORK BY THE MOTHER OF MODERN FEMINISM.And a memoir written by her grief-stricken husband. Do you know whose shoulders you stand on...Mary Wollstonecraft lived for 38 years¿and changed the world. She died in agony 11 days after giving birth to Mary Shelley, who would become the author of Frankenstein. Her heartbroken husband, William Godwin, vowed to compile her memoirs and publish them along with her unfinished Victorian gothic novel in 1798. He meant to glorify her. The opposite happened. European society made a freak of Wollstonecraft, her work and her memory. What could she have written that scandalized so much? What did Godwin reveal to incite such ire? In The Wrongs of Woman, Maria has been separated from her infant daughter and imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband. There, she forms an unexpected friendship with one of the female wards. Could romance follow? Delve into the most radical feminist work from the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and find out. Wollstonecraft's courage made our world a more equal place. Godwin's love ensured we could know whose shoulders we stand on.