Mary and The Wrongs of Woman

Okay it's possible i've found my way into the world of feminist literature. These books (Mary is one, The Wrongs of Woman (also known as Maria) is the other) are by a woman called Mary Wollstonecraft (and yes I LOVE her surname), who fact fans is the mother of Mary Shelley (of Frankenstein fame). Safe to say these books where written a very long time ago, in the late 1700s, a little before Jane Austen but are no more difficult to read in terms of language than say Pride and Prejudice. So what are they about…well Mary is about a woman called, and this may come as something of a shock, Mary. Who was married to a man she didn't much care for called Charles, who happily (for Mary) leaves for the continent leaving Mary to become buddies with a woman called Ann (who was maybe a little more than a buddy…in an emotional sense) tragedy ensues when Ann gets sick, because well Mary basically loved her, and then she meets Henry (who is also sick) and she likes him in a weird way too more tragedy ensues then Charles comes back and that's more or less that. Except it's the 1700s and Mary isn't like your typical women from the 1700s, she thinks for herself, and doesn't follow social convention, she is as much her own woman as she could be in that period of time. It's a sad story and I can't quite make my mind up about our protagonist… The Wrongs of Woman however I can, this story is for the most part about Maria who made Mary's life seem like a walk in the park. Maria was married to essentially a gold digger who got a maid to drug her, stole her child and imprisoned her in I think a mental hospital. Here she befriends (and I use that term lightly, as someone much smarter than me could explain to much greater effect) Jemima, who hasn't exactly had it easy (abusive master, kicked out by wife of the master when she found out about Jemima and her husband (not that Jemima had any choice in that situation), abortion, essentially lots of bad things) Jemima brings her books from another inmate Henry Darnford who scribbles notes in the margins, they start up a correspondence via letters, and then visits which Jemima organises, fall in love, Jemima goes to look for Maria's child and helps Maria escape (Jemima isn't all good though…she did something quite terrible herself) and then i'm not entirely sure what happens as the novel is unfinished. I quite liked Maria, the rest of the characters where all fairly awful, some bits where unrelentingly miserable, but Maria was alright, she was tough and fought against the situation she was in. Neither novel is going to fill you with joy and you do need to concentrate, it's quite wordy, but they are interesting to read, and they will make you feel something which is no mean feat. VERY IMPORTANT AMMENDEMENT: Earlier in this review I alluded to someone much smarter than me, said person also told me this very important (that is to say, funny) piece of trivia about a certain Mrs Wollstonecraft, (disclaimer: if you are American and reading this I apologise sincerely), (disclaimer part 2: said person isn't immature, said person just knew I would find this hilarious…because I occasionally teeter on the edge of immaturity and it's so much fun to fall off that cliff once in a while) anyway, to the trivia! Mary Wollstonecraft was kind of like Mary in the story Mary, in that she had a buddy much like Ann however and this is the bit that is important her buddy much like Ann, wasn't called Ann, she had quite easily the greatest name in the history of the world, and I am not making this up…she was called Fanny Blood. Both kind of gross and hysterical all at once. And no I'm not sure if Mary saw her once a month...