Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley
Subtitle: Writing Lives
Contributors: Helen M. Buss (Editor); D. L. Macdonald (Editor); Anne McWhir (Editor)
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Published: June 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 342
ISBN-13: 9780889203631
Subjects: Literary studies: general; Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851; Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797; Nonfiction; English; Literary Criticism; British Isles; Non-Classifiable; English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Women Authors
Description: Pioneers in life writing, Mary Wollstonecraft, author of 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' (1792), and Mary Shelley, author of 'Frankenstein '(1818 ), are now widely regarded as two of the leading writers of the Romantic period. They are both responsible for opening up new possibilities for women in genres traditionally dominated by men. This volume brings together essays on Wollstonecraft's and Shelley's life writing by some of the most prominent scholars in Canada, Australia, and the United States. It also includes a full-length play by award-winning Canadian playwright Rose Scollard. Together, the essays and the play explore the connections between mother and daughter, between writing and life, and between criticism and creation. They offer a new understanding of two important writers, of a literary period, and of emergent modes of life writing. Essayists include Judith Barbour, Betty T. Bennett, Anne K. Mellor, Charles E. Robinson, Eleanor Ty, and Lisa Vargo. Among the works discussed are Wollstonecraft&#8217;s 'Vindication', 'Letters from Norway', and 'Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman'; William Godwin's 'Memoirs of Wollstonecraft'; and Shelley's 'Frankenstein', 'The Last Man', 'Ladore', and 'Rambles in Germany and Italy'.