Wollstonecraft: Proposal & Bibliography

This paper will look at critical reviews and analyses of Mary Wollstonecraft's attack on Jean-Jacques Rosseau's Sophie in Chapter V of the Vindication of the Rights of Women. First, it will discuss the circumstances that led to the ideal of Sophie, and the biographical reasons for Wollstonecraft's indignant fury that she displays in the Vindication. Then it will evaluate how Rosseau is attacked and how strong Wollstonecraft's arguments are in terms of writing style and discussion. The paper will also touch on Wollstonecraft’s inconsistencies in her writing. Finally, it will on the history of the Vindication's reception among her contemporaries.



Flexnor, Eleanor. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Biography. Coward, McCann & Geogheran, Inc: New York, 1972.

Conger, Syndy McMillen. Mary Wollstonecraft and the Language of Sensibility. Associated University Presses: London and Toronto, 1994.

Ferguson, Moria & Janet Todd. Mary Wollstonecraft. Twayne Publishers: Boston, 1984.

Jones, Chris. “The Vindications & their political traditions.” The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft. Ed. Claudia Johnson. Cambridge University Press, 2002. 42 – 58.

Mellor, Anne K. “Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women and the women writers of her day.” The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft. Ed. Claude Johnson. Cambridge University Press: 2002. 141 – 159.

Sunsten, Emily W. A Different Face: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Harper & Dow: New York, 1975.

Brace, Laura. “Not Empire, but Equality: Mary Wollstonecraft, the Marriage State and the Sexual Contract.” The Journal of Political Philosophy (2000); vol. 8, no. 4, 433-455.

Zaw, Susan Khin. “The Reasonable Heart: Mary Wollstonecraft’s View of the Relation between Reason and Feeling in Morality, Moral Psychology and Moral Developement.” Hypatia (Winter 1998); vol. 13, no. 1, 79 – 117.


And of course, these are only tentative. *rolls eyes* Everything subject to change!

Wollstonecraft: Search results

I hate it when there's so much stuff out there but so little in my own library.


Family Feuds: Wollstonecraft, Burke, and Rousseau on the Transformation of the Family
Botting, Eileen Hunt
Albany, NY: State U of New York P, 2006. viii, 257 pp.
9780791467053
King's College library (currently in processing)


Mary Wollstonecraft and the "Reserve of Reason"
Simon Swift. Studies in Romanticism. Boston: Spring 2006.Vol. 45, Iss. 1; pg. 3, 23 pgs
People: Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-97)
Author(s): Simon Swift
Document types: Feature
Document features: References
Publication title: Studies in Romanticism. Boston: Spring 2006. Vol. 45, Iss. 1; pg. 3, 23 pgs
Found the PDF document on Literature Online


Wollstonecraft, Rousseau and the Revision of Romantic Subjectivity
Yousef, Nancy
Studies in Romanticism, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 537-57, Winter 1999
Found on Literature Online

Wollstonecraft and Rousseau: The Gendered Fate of Political Theorists
Weiss, Penny A.
Falco, Maria J. (ed.)
Falco, Maria J. (ed.). 1996. Feminist Interpretations of Mary Wollstonecraft. (pp. 15-32). University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 234 pp.
Borrowed out from all libraries at current. Due in MSVU library today, so I'll order it tomorrow.

Wollstonecraft versus Rousseau: Natural Religion and the Sex of Virtue and Reason
Butler, Melissa A.
Mell, Donald C., Jr. (ed. & pref.); Braun, Theodore E. D. (ed.); Palmer, Lucia M. (ed.)
1988. Man, God, and Nature in the Enlightenment. (pp. 65-73). East Lansing, MI: Colleagues, xv, 247 pp.
Item status: SMU General Loan (25) Call number: CB 411 M273 1988


And because I have no idea what's going on otherwise if I'm comparing Rousseau and Wollstonecraft, I'm going to look for his book, Emile.
Rousseau - Emile
LB 512 E5 F6 1961

Book List

This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished, underline those you intend to read in the future and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

( List of Books )