“a powerful plea for a change in society’s perceptions of the function and potential of women”
WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
London: J. Johnson, 1792
Early nineteenth-century half calf. Light wear. A very good copy.
First edition. Wollstonecraft’s most famous work and one of the classics of women’s rights, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is “a rational plea for a rational basis to the relation between the sexes” (Printing and the Mind of Man 242).
“Wollstonecraft’s major work caused an outcry when it was published and is hailed as a cornerstone of feminism … The central theme of the work on women’s rights was that they should be educated to carry a responsibility in society equal to that of men. In disagreemnt with Rousseau, … Wollstonecraft urged ‘rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience’” (Legacies of Genius 64).
This manifesto for women’s rights, the title of which echoes Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man (1791), “discussed all aspects of women’s education, status, and position in society and dramatically argued that true freedom necesitates equality of men and women” (Schlueter).
Wollstonecraft wrote that her main argument was “built on this simple principle that, if woman be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge, for truth must be common to all.” She added, “It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares and sorrows into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain must be obtained by their charms and weakness.”
Printing and the Mind of Man 242.
$28,000