Editing Mary Wollstonecraft (section)

==Biography==
{{For timeline}}

===Early life===
Wollstonecraft was born on 27 April 1759 in [[Spitalfields]], London.<ref>Franklin, xiv.</ref> She was the second of the seven children of Elizabeth Dixon and Edward John Wollstonecraft.<ref>Rossi, [https://archive.org/details/feministpapersfr00ross/page/25 25].</ref> Although her family had a comfortable income when she was a child, her father gradually squandered it on speculative projects. Consequently, the family became financially unstable and they were frequently forced to move during Wollstonecraft's youth.<ref>Tomalin, 9, 17, 24, 27; Sunstein, 11.</ref> The family's financial situation eventually became so dire that Wollstonecraft's father compelled her to turn over money that she would have inherited at her maturity. Moreover, he was apparently a violent man who would beat his wife in drunken rages. As a teenager, Wollstonecraft used to lie outside the door of her mother's bedroom to protect her.<ref>Todd, 11; Tomalin, 19; Wardle, 6; Sunstein, 16.</ref> Wollstonecraft played a similar maternal role for her sisters, Everina and Eliza, throughout her life. In a defining moment in 1784, she persuaded Eliza, who was suffering from what was probably [[postpartum depression]], to leave her husband and infant; Wollstonecraft made all of the arrangements for Eliza to flee, demonstrating her willingness to challenge social norms. The human costs, however, were severe: her sister suffered social condemnation and, because she could not remarry, was doomed to a life of poverty and hard work.<ref>Todd, 45–57; Tomalin, 34–43; Wardle, 27–30; Sunstein, 80–91.</ref>

Two friendships shaped Wollstonecraft's early life. The first was with [[Jane Gardiner|Jane Arden]] in [[Beverley]]. The two frequently read books together and attended lectures presented by Arden's father, a self-styled philosopher and scientist. Wollstonecraft revelled in the intellectual atmosphere of the Arden household and valued her friendship with Arden greatly, sometimes to the point of being emotionally possessive. Wollstonecraft wrote to her: "I have formed romantic notions of friendship&nbsp;... I am a little singular in my thoughts of love and friendship; I must have the first place or none."<ref>Quoted in Todd, 16.</ref> In some of Wollstonecraft's letters to Arden, she reveals the volatile and depressive emotions that would haunt her throughout her life.<ref>See, for example, Todd, 72–75; Tomalin, 18–21; Sunstein, 22–33.</ref> The second and more important friendship was with [[Fanny Blood|Fanny (Frances) Blood]], introduced to Wollstonecraft by the Clares, a couple in [[Hoxton]] who became parental figures to her; Wollstonecraft credited Blood with opening her mind.<ref>Todd, 22–24; Tomalin, 25–27; Wardle, 10–11; Sunstein, 39–42.</ref>

Unhappy with her home life, Wollstonecraft struck out on her own in 1778 and accepted a job as a [[lady's companion]] to Sarah Dawson, a widow living in [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]]. However, Wollstonecraft had trouble getting along with the irascible woman (an experience she drew on when describing the drawbacks of such a position in ''[[Thoughts on the Education of Daughters]]'', 1787). In 1780 she returned home upon being called back to care for her dying mother.<ref>Wardle, 12–18; Sunstein 51–57.</ref> Rather than return to Dawson's employ after the death of her mother, Wollstonecraft moved in with the Bloods. She realized during the two years she spent with the family that she had idealized Blood, who was more invested in traditional feminine values than was Wollstonecraft. But Wollstonecraft remained dedicated to Fanny and her family throughout her life, frequently giving pecuniary assistance to Blood's brother.<ref>Wardle, 20; Sunstein, 73–76.</ref>

Wollstonecraft had envisioned living in a female utopia with Blood; they made plans to rent rooms together and support each other emotionally and financially, but this dream collapsed under economic realities. In order to make a living, Wollstonecraft, her sisters and Blood set up a school together in [[Newington Green]], a [[English Dissenters|Dissenting]] community. Blood soon became engaged and, after her marriage, moved to [[Lisbon]], Portugal with her husband, Hugh Skeys, in hopes that it would improve her health which had always been precarious.<ref>Todd, 62; Wardle, 30–32; Sunstein, 92–102.</ref> Despite the change of surroundings Blood's health further deteriorated when she became pregnant, and in 1785 Wollstonecraft left the school and followed Blood to nurse her, but to no avail.<ref>Todd, 68–69; Tomalin, 52ff; Wardle, 43–45; Sunstein, 103–106.</ref> Moreover, her abandonment of the school led to its failure.<ref>Tomalin, 54–57.</ref> Blood's death devastated Wollstonecraft and was part of the inspiration for her first novel, ''[[Mary: A Fiction]]'' (1788).<ref>See Wardle, chapter 2, for autobiographical elements of ''Mary''; see Sunstein, chapter 7.</ref>

==="The first of a new genus"===
[[File:MaryWollstonecraft.jpg|thumb|Wollstonecraft in 1790–1791, by [[John Opie]]]]
[[File:Mary Wollstonecraft Original Stories from Real Life copy 1 object 1 - Look what a fine morning it is.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Engraving showing a female teacher holding her arms up in the shape of a cross. There is one female child on each side of her, both gazing up at her.|Frontispiece to the 1791 edition of ''[[Original Stories from Real Life]]'' engraved by [[William Blake]]]]

After Blood's death in 1785, Wollstonecraft's friends helped her obtain a position as [[governess]] to the daughters of the [[Anglo-Irish]] [[Baron Kingsborough|Kingsborough family]] in Ireland. Although she could not get along with Lady Kingsborough,<ref>See, for example, Todd, 106–107; Tomalin, 66, 79–80; Sunstein, 127–128.</ref> the children found her an inspiring instructor; one of the daughters, [[Margaret King]], would later say she "had freed her mind from all superstitions".<ref>Todd, 116.</ref> Some of Wollstonecraft's experiences during this year would make their way into her only children's book, ''[[Original Stories from Real Life]]'' (1788).<ref>Tomalin, 64–88; Wardle, 60ff; Sunstein, 160–161.</ref>

Frustrated by the limited career options open to respectable yet poor women—an impediment which Wollstonecraft eloquently describes in the chapter of ''[[Thoughts on the Education of Daughters]]'' entitled "Unfortunate Situation of Females, Fashionably Educated, and Left Without a Fortune"—she decided, after only a year as a governess, to embark upon a career as an author. This was a radical choice, since, at the time, few women could support themselves by writing. As she wrote to her sister Everina in 1787, she was trying to become "the first of a new genus".<ref>Wollstonecraft, ''The Collected Letters'', 139; see also Sunstein, 154.</ref> She moved to London and, assisted by the liberal publisher [[Joseph Johnson (publisher)|Joseph Johnson]], found a place to live and work to support herself.<ref>Todd, 123; Tomalin, 91–92; Wardle, 80–82; Sunstein, 151–155.</ref> She learned French and German and translated texts,<ref>Todd, 134–135.</ref> most notably ''Of the Importance of Religious Opinions'' by [[Jacques Necker]] and ''Elements of Morality, for the Use of Children'' by [[Christian Gotthilf Salzmann]]. She also wrote reviews, primarily of novels, for Johnson's periodical, the ''[[Analytical Review]]''. Wollstonecraft's intellectual universe expanded during this time, not only from the reading that she did for her reviews but also from the company she kept: she attended Johnson's famous dinners and met the radical pamphleteer [[Thomas Paine]] and the philosopher [[William Godwin]]. The first time Godwin and Wollstonecraft met, they were disappointed in each other. Godwin had come to hear Paine, but Wollstonecraft assailed him all night long, disagreeing with him on nearly every subject. Johnson himself, however, became much more than a friend; she described him in her letters as a father and a brother.<ref>Tomalin, 89–109; Wardle, 92–94, 128; Sunstein, 171–175.</ref>

In London, Wollstonecraft lived on Dolben Street, in [[Southwark]]; an up-and-coming area following the opening of the first [[Blackfriars Bridge]] in 1769.<ref name="London SE1">{{Cite web |title=Mary Wollstonecraft blue plaque unveiled |url=https://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/1084 |access-date=6 August 2020 |website=London SE1 |last1=Team |first1=London SE1 Website }}</ref> While in London, she formed connections with  members of the  [[Blue Stockings Society]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=M. |first=D'Ezio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEIaBwAAQBAJ&dq=Mary+Wollstonecraft+Blue+Stockings+society&pg=PA35 |title=Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi: A Taste for Eccentricity |date=8 January 2010 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=9781443818919 |pages=35–36 |quote=...second generation of blue stockings including Wollstonecraft... |access-date=4 June 2023}}{{bsn|date=November 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Bluestockings: Their empowering efforts, promotion of female friendship and inspiring publications |url=https://philipmould.com/news/127-the-bluestockings-their-empowering-efforts-promotion-of-female-friendship-and/ |access-date=4 June 2023 |publisher=Philip Mould |quote=By the 1790s, the term  [Blue Stockings] was imbued with a more radical meaning with the emergence of the rise of women's education and self-advancement. Anna Barbauld's pioneering Lessons for Children, published in 1778 and Hannah More's The Sunday School, were both revolutionary in improving literacy amongst young women, while Mary Wollstonecraft's seminal A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) revolted against traditional perceptions of women as weak and emotional, and the notion that women exist purely for male pleasure. This more militant feminism that was birthed with the writings of Barbauld and Wollstonecraft undeniably had its roots in the empowering efforts of the Bluestockings, as well as the society's promotion of female friendship, and the fantastic and inspiring publications of its members.}}</ref>  and  pursued a relationship with the artist [[Henry Fuseli]], even though he was already married. She was, she wrote, enraptured by his genius, "the grandeur of his soul, that quickness of comprehension, and lovely sympathy".<ref>Quoted in Todd, 153.</ref> She proposed a platonic living arrangement with Fuseli and his wife, but Fuseli's wife was appalled, and he broke off the relationship with Wollstonecraft.<ref>Todd, 197–198; Tomalin 151–152; Wardle, 76–77, 171–173; Sunstein, 220–222.</ref> After Fuseli's rejection, Wollstonecraft decided to travel to France to escape the humiliation of the incident, and to participate in the revolutionary events that she had just celebrated in her recent ''[[Vindication of the Rights of Men]]'' (1790). She had written the ''Rights of Men'' in response to the Whig MP [[Edmund Burke]]'s politically conservative critique of the [[French Revolution]] in ''[[Reflections on the Revolution in France]]'' (1790) and it made her famous overnight. ''Reflections on the Revolution in France'' was published on 1 November 1790, and so angered Wollstonecraft that she spent the rest of the month writing her rebuttal. ''A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke'' was published on 29 November 1790, initially anonymously;<ref name="Furniss 60">Furniss 60.</ref> the second edition of ''A Vindication of the Rights of Men'' was published on 18 December, and this time the publisher revealed Wollstonecraft as the author.<ref name="Furniss 60" />

Wollstonecraft called the French Revolution a "glorious <em>chance</em> to obtain more virtue and happiness than hitherto blessed our globe".<ref name="Furniss 61">Furniss 61.</ref> Against Burke's dismissal of the Third Estate as men of no account, Wollstonecraft wrote, "Time may show, that this obscure throng knew more of the human heart and of legislation than the profligates of rank, emasculated by hereditary effeminacy".<ref name="Furniss 61" /> About the events of 5–6 October 1789, when the royal family was marched from Versailles to Paris by a group of angry housewives, Burke praised Queen [[Marie Antoinette]] as a symbol of the refined elegance of the {{lang|fr|ancien régime}}, who was surrounded by "furies from hell, in the abused shape of the vilest of women".<ref name="Furniss 61" /> Wollstonecraft by contrast wrote of the same event: "Probably you [Burke] mean women who gained a livelihood by selling vegetables or fish, who never had any advantages of education".<ref name="Furniss 61" />

Wollstonecraft was compared with such leading lights as the theologian and controversialist [[Joseph Priestley]] and Paine, whose ''[[Rights of Man]]'' (1791) would prove to be the most popular of the responses to Burke. She pursued the ideas she had outlined in ''Rights of Men'' in ''[[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]]'' (1792), her most famous and influential work.<ref>Tomalin, 144–155; Wardle, 115ff; Sunstein, 192–202.</ref> Wollstonecraft's fame extended across the English channel, for when the French statesman [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord]] visited London in 1792, he visited her, during which she asked that French girls be given the same right to an education that French boys were being offered by the new regime in France.<ref>Furniss 63.</ref>

===France===
[[File:Tuileriensturm.jpg|thumb|alt=Smoke is billowing throughout the top two-thirds of the picture, dead guards are scattered in the foreground, and a battle with hand-to-hand combat and a horse is in the bottom right.|The [[insurrection of 10 August 1792]]]]

Wollstonecraft left for Paris in December 1792, and arrived about a month before [[Execution of Louis XVI|Louis XVI was guillotined]]. Britain and France were on the brink of war when she left for Paris, and many advised her not to go.<ref>Furniss 64.</ref> France was in turmoil. She sought out other British visitors such as [[Helen Maria Williams]] and joined the circle of expatriates then in the city.<ref>Todd, 214–215; Tomalin, 156–182; Wardle, 179–184.</ref> During her time in Paris, Wollstonecraft associated mostly with the moderate [[Girondins]] rather than the more radical [[Jacobins]].<ref name="Furniss 65" /> It was indicative that when [[Archibald Hamilton Rowan]], the [[Society of United Irishmen|United Irishman]], encountered her in the city in 1794 it was at a post-Terror festival in honour of the moderate revolutionary leader [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|Mirabeau]], who had been a great hero for Irish and English radicals before his death in April 1791.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whelan |first=Fergus |title=God-Provoking Democrat: The Remarkable Life of Archibald Hamilton Rowan |publisher=New Island |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-84840-460-1 |location=Stillorgan, Dublin |page=151}}</ref>

On 26 December 1792, Wollstonecraft saw the former king, [[Louis XVI]], being taken to be tried before the National Assembly, and much to her own surprise, found "the tears flow[ing] insensibly from my eyes, when I saw Louis sitting, with more dignity than I expected from his character, in a hackney coach going to meet death, where so many of his race have triumphed".<ref name="Furniss 65">Furniss 65.</ref>

France declared war on Britain in February 1793.<ref name="Furniss 66" /> Wollstonecraft tried to leave France for Switzerland but was denied permission.<ref name="Furniss 66" />  The Jacobin faction increased in power, and in March the formation of the [[Committee of Public Safety]] and the [[Revolutionary Tribunal]] were symptomatic of an increasingly totalitarian regime.<ref name="Furniss 66" />  Life became very difficult for foreigners in France.<ref name="Furniss 66">Furniss 66.</ref> At first, they were put under police surveillance and, to get a residency permit, had to produce six written statements from Frenchmen testifying to their loyalty to the republic. Then, on 12 April 1793, all foreigners were forbidden to leave France.<ref name="Furniss 67">Furniss 67.</ref> Despite her sympathy for the revolution, life for Wollstonecraft become very uncomfortable, all the more so as the Girondins had lost out to the Jacobins.<ref name="Furniss 67" /> Some of Wollstonecraft's French friends lost their heads to the guillotine as the Jacobins set out to annihilate their enemies.<ref name="Furniss 67" />

===Gilbert Imlay, the Reign of Terror, and her first child===

Having just written the ''Rights of Woman'', Wollstonecraft was determined to put her ideas to the test, and in the stimulating intellectual atmosphere of the [[French Revolution]], she attempted her most experimental romantic attachment yet: she met and fell passionately in love with [[Gilbert Imlay]], an American adventurer. Wollstonecraft put her own principles in practice by sleeping with Imlay even though they were not married, which was widely viewed as unacceptable behaviour for a "respectable" woman.<ref name="Furniss 67" /> Whether or not she was interested in marriage, he was not, and she appears to have fallen in love with an idealization of Imlay. Despite her rejection of the sexual component of relationships in the ''Rights of Woman'', Wollstonecraft discovered that Imlay awakened her interest in sex.<ref>Todd, 232–236; Tomalin, 185–186; Wardle, 185–188; Sunstein, 235–245.</ref>

Wollstonecraft was to a certain extent disillusioned by what she saw in France, writing that the people under the republic still behaved slavishly to those who held power while the new French government remained "venal" and "brutal".<ref name="Furniss 66" /> Despite her disenchantment, Wollstonecraft wrote:

<blockquote>I cannot yet give up the hope, that a fairer day is dawning on Europe, though I must hesitatingly observe, that little is to be expected from the narrow principle of commerce, which seems everywhere to be shoving aside ''the point of honour'' of the ''noblesse'' [nobility]. For the same pride of office, the same desire of power are still visible; with this aggravation, that, fearing to return to obscurity, after having but just acquired a relish for distinction, each hero, or philosopher, for all are dubbed with these new titles, endeavors to make hay while the sun shines.<ref name="Furniss 66" /></blockquote>

Wollstonecraft was offended by the Jacobins' treatment of women. They refused to grant women equal rights, denounced "[[Amazons]]", and made it clear that women were supposed to conform to [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]'s ideal of helpers to men.<ref name="Gordon 215">Gordon 215.</ref> On 16 October 1793, [[Marie Antoinette]] was guillotined; among her charges and convictions, she was found guilty of committing incest with her son.<ref name="Gordon 214">Gordon 214–215.</ref> Though Wollstonecraft disliked the former queen, she was troubled that the Jacobins would make Marie Antoinette's alleged perverse sexual acts one of the central reasons for the French people to hate her.<ref name="Gordon 215" />

As the daily arrests and executions of the [[Reign of Terror]] began, Wollstonecraft came under suspicion due to being a British subject and friendly with leading Girondins. On 31 October 1793, most Girondin leaders were guillotined; when Imlay broke the news to Wollstonecraft, she fainted.<ref name="Gordon 214" /> By this time, Imlay was taking advantage of the [[Royal Navy]]'s blockade of France, which had caused shortages and worsened inflation levels,<ref name="Gordon 215" /> by chartering ships to bring food and soap from the United States past the blockade which he could then sell at a premium in French markets. Imlay's blockade-running gained the respect and support of some Jacobins, ensuring, as he had hoped, his freedom during the Terror.<ref>Gordon 215, 224.</ref> To protect Wollstonecraft from arrest, Imlay made a false statement to the U.S. embassy in Paris that he had married her, automatically making her an American citizen.<ref>St Clair, 160; Furniss, 67; Sunstein, 262–263; Wardle, 192–193.</ref> Some of her friends were not so lucky; many were arrested. Her sisters believed she had been imprisoned.<ref>Wardle, 194–195</ref>

Wollstonecraft called life under the Jacobins "nightmarish". There were gigantic daytime parades requiring everyone to show themselves and lustily cheer lest they be suspected of inadequate commitment to the republic, as well as nighttime police raids to arrest "enemies of the republic".<ref name="Furniss 67" /> In a March 1794 letter to her sister Everina, Wollstonecraft wrote:

<blockquote>It is impossible for you to have any idea of the impression the sad scenes I have been a witness to have left on my mind ... death and misery, in every shape of terrour, haunts this devoted country—I certainly am glad that I came to France, because I never could have had else a just opinion of the most extraordinary event that has ever been recorded.<ref name="Furniss 67" /></blockquote>

Wollstonecraft soon became pregnant by Imlay; on 14 May 1794, she gave birth to her first child, [[Fanny Imlay|Fanny]], naming her after perhaps her closest friend.<ref>Tomalin, 218; Wardle, 202–203; Sunstein, 256–257.</ref> Wollstonecraft was overjoyed; she wrote to a friend, "My little Girl begins to suck so MANFULLY that her father reckons saucily on her writing the second part of the R[igh]ts of Woman" (emphasis hers).<ref>Quoted in Wardle, 202.</ref> She continued to write avidly, despite not only her pregnancy and the burdens of being a new mother alone in a foreign country, but also the growing tumult of the French Revolution. While at [[Le Havre]] in northern France, she wrote a history of the early revolution, ''An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution'', which was published in London in December 1794.<ref>Tomalin, 211–219; Wardle, 206–214; Sunstein, 254–255.</ref> Imlay, unhappy with the domestic-minded and maternal Wollstonecraft, eventually left her. He promised that he would return to her and Fanny at Le Havre, but his delays in writing to her and his long absences convinced Wollstonecraft that he had found another woman. Her letters to him are full of needy expostulations, which most critics explain as the expressions of a deeply depressed woman, while others say they resulted from her circumstances—a foreign woman alone with an infant in the middle of a revolution that had seen good friends imprisoned or executed.<ref>Todd, Chapter 25; Tomalin, 220–231; Wardle, 215ff; Sunstein, 262ff.</ref>

===The fall of the Jacobins and ''An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution''===
In July 1794, Wollstonecraft welcomed the fall of the Jacobins, predicting it would be followed with a restoration of [[freedom of the press]] in France, which led her to return to Paris.<ref name="Furniss 67" /> In August 1794, Imlay departed for London and promised to return soon.<ref name="Furniss 67" /> In 1793, the [[first Pitt ministry]] had begun a crackdown on British radicals, suspending civil liberties, imposing drastic censorship and trying anyone suspected of sympathising with the revolution with treason, which led Wollstonecraft to fear she would be imprisoned if she returned to England.<ref name="Furniss 68">Furniss 68.</ref>

The winter of 1794–1795 was the coldest winter in Europe for over a century, which reduced Wollstonecraft and her daughter Fanny to desperate circumstances.<ref>Furniss 67–68.</ref> The river Seine froze that winter, which made it impossible for ships to bring food and coal to Paris, leading to widespread starvation and deaths from the cold in the city.<ref>Gordon 243.</ref> Wollstonecraft continued to write to Imlay, asking him to return to France at once, declaring she still had faith in the revolution and did not wish to return to England.<ref name="Furniss 68" /> After she left France on 7 April 1795, she continued to refer to herself as "Mrs. Imlay", even to her sisters, in order to bestow legitimacy upon her child.<ref>Tomalin, 225.</ref>

British historian Tom Furniss called ''An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution'' the most neglected of Wollstonecraft's books. It was first published in London in 1794, but a second edition did not appear until 1989.<ref name="Furniss 68" /> Later generations were more interested in her feminist writings than in her account of the French Revolution, which Furniss has called her "best work".<ref name="Furniss 68" /> Wollstonecraft was not trained as a historian, but she used all sorts of journals, letters and documents recounting how ordinary people in France reacted to the revolution. She was trying to counteract what Furniss called the "hysterical" anti-revolutionary mood in Britain, which depicted the revolution as due to the entire French nation going mad.<ref name="Furniss 68" /> Wollstonecraft argued instead that the revolution arose from a set of social, economic and political conditions that left no other way out of the crisis that gripped France in 1789.<ref name="Furniss 68" />

''An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution'' was a difficult balancing act for Wollstonecraft. She condemned the Jacobin regime and the Reign of Terror, but at same time she argued that the revolution was a great achievement, which led her to stop her history in late 1789 rather than write about the Terror of 1793–94.<ref>Furniss 68–69.</ref> Edmund Burke had ended his ''Reflections on the Revolution in France'' with reference to the events of 5–6 October 1789, when a group of women from Paris forced the French royal family from the Palace of Versailles to Paris.<ref>Furniss 72.</ref> Burke called the women "furies from hell", while Wollstonecraft defended them as ordinary housewives angry about the lack of bread to feed their families.<ref name="Furniss 68" /> Against Burke's idealized portrait of Marie Antoinette as a noble victim of a mob, Wollstonecraft portrayed the queen as a femme fatale, a seductive, scheming and dangerous woman.<ref name="Callender 384">Callender 384.</ref> Wollstonecraft argued that the values of the French aristocracy corrupted women in a monarchy because women's main purpose in such a society was to bear sons to continue a dynasty, which essentially reduced a woman's value to only her womb.<ref name="Callender 384" /> Moreover, Wollstonecraft pointed out that unless a queen was a [[queen regnant]], most queens were [[queen consort]]s, which meant a woman had to exercise influence via her husband or son, encouraging her to become more and more manipulative. Wollstonecraft argued that aristocratic values, by emphasizing a woman's body and her ability to be charming over her mind and character, had encouraged women like Marie Antoinette to be manipulative and ruthless, making the queen into a corrupted and corrupting product of the {{lang|fr|ancien régime}}.<ref name="Callender 384" />

In ''Biographical Memoirs of the French Revolution'' (1799), historian [[John Adolphus]] condemned Wollstonecraft's work as a "rhapsody of libellous declamations" and took particular offence at her depiction of Louis XVI.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adolphus |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-mtJAAAAMAAJ |title=Biographical Memoirs of the French Revolution |publisher=T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies, in the Strand |year=1799 |volume=1 |location=London |pages=5–6}}</ref>

===England and William Godwin===
Seeking Imlay, Wollstonecraft returned to London in April 1795, but he rejected her. In May 1795, she attempted to commit suicide, probably with [[laudanum]]. Imlay saved her life, but it is unclear how.<ref>Todd, 286–287; Wardle, 225.</ref> In a last attempt to win back Imlay, she embarked upon some business negotiations for him in Scandinavia, trying to locate a Norwegian captain who had absconded with silver that Imlay was trying to get past the British blockade of France. Wollstonecraft undertook this hazardous trip with only her young daughter and Marguerite, her maid. She recounted her travels and thoughts in letters to Imlay, many of which were eventually published as ''[[Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark]]'' in 1796.<ref>Tomalin, 225–231; Wardle, 226–244; Sunstein, 277–290.</ref> When she returned to England and came to the full realisation that her relationship with Imlay was over, she attempted suicide for the second time, leaving a note for Imlay:

{{blockquote|Let my wrongs sleep with me! Soon, very soon, shall I be at peace. When you receive this, my burning head will be cold&nbsp;... I shall plunge into the Thames where there is the least chance of my being snatched from the death I seek. God bless you! May you never know by experience what you have made me endure. Should your sensibility ever awake, remorse will find its way to your heart; and, in the midst of business and sensual pleasure, I shall appear before you, the victim of your deviation from rectitude.<ref>Wollstonecraft, ''The Collected Letters'', 326–327.</ref>}}

[[File:WilliamGodwin.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Half-length profile portrait of a man. His dark clothing blends into the background and his white face is in stark contrast.|Portrait of William Godwin by [[James Northcote (painter)|James Northcote]], oil on canvas, 1802]]
She then went out on a rainy night and "to make her clothes heavy with water, she walked up and down about half an hour" before jumping into the [[River Thames]], but a stranger saw her jump and rescued her.<ref>Todd, 355–356; Tomalin, 232–236; Wardle, 245–246.</ref> Wollstonecraft considered her suicide attempt deeply rational, writing after her rescue, <blockquote>I have only to lament, that, when the bitterness of death was past, I was inhumanly brought back to life and misery. But a fixed determination is not to be baffled by disappointment; nor will I allow that to be a frantic attempt, which was one of the calmest acts of reason. In this respect, I am only accountable to myself. Did I care for what is termed reputation, it is by other circumstances that I should be dishonoured.<ref>Todd, 357.</ref></blockquote>

Gradually, Wollstonecraft returned to her literary life, becoming involved with [[Joseph Johnson (publisher)|Joseph Johnson's]] circle again, in particular with [[Mary Hays]], [[Elizabeth Inchbald]], and [[Sarah Siddons]] through [[William Godwin]]. Godwin and Wollstonecraft's unique courtship began slowly, but it eventually became a passionate love affair.<ref>St. Clair, 164–169; Tomalin, 245–270; Wardle, 268ff; Sunstein, 314–320.</ref> Godwin had read her ''Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark'' and later wrote that "If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book. She speaks of her sorrows, in a way that fills us with melancholy, and dissolves us in tenderness, at the same time that she displays a genius which commands all our admiration."<ref name="Godwin" /> Once Wollstonecraft became pregnant, they decided to marry so that their child would be legitimate. Their marriage revealed the fact that Wollstonecraft had never been married to Imlay, and as a result she and Godwin lost many friends. Godwin was further criticized because he had advocated the abolition of marriage in his philosophical treatise ''[[Political Justice]]''.<ref>St. Clair, 172–174; Tomalin, 271–273; Sunstein, 330–335.</ref> After their marriage on 29 March 1797, Godwin and Wollstonecraft moved to 29 The Polygon, [[Somers Town, London|Somers Town]]. Godwin rented an apartment 20 doors away at 17 Evesham Buildings in [[Chalton Street]] as a study, so that they could both still retain their independence; they often communicated by letter.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carl Pforzheimer Library |author-link=Carl Pforzheimer |title=Shelley and His Circle, 1773–1822 |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1961 |editor-last=Cameron |editor-first=Kenneth Neill |volume=1 |page=185 |chapter=The Death of Mary Wollstonecraft |editor-last2=Reiman |editor-first2=Donald H. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NY-CUysZc8AC&pg=PA185}}</ref><ref>Sunstein has printed several of these letters in order so that the reader can follow Wollstonecraft and Godwin's conversation (321ff.)</ref> By all accounts, theirs was a happy and stable, though brief, relationship.<ref>St. Clair, 173; Wardle, 286–292; Sunstein, 335–340.</ref>

===Birth of Mary, death===
[[File:GodwinMemoirs.jpg|right|thumb|alt=Title page reads "Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. By William Godwin. The Second Edition, Corrected. London: Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul's Church-yard. 1798.|Title page for [[William Godwin|Godwin's]] ''[[Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]]'' (1798)]]

On 30 August 1797, Wollstonecraft gave birth to her second daughter, [[Mary Shelley|Mary]]. Although the delivery seemed to go well initially, the [[placenta]] broke apart during the birth and became infected; [[childbed fever]] (post-partum infection) was a common and often fatal occurrence in the 18th century.<ref>Gordon, 356.</ref> After several days of agony, Wollstonecraft died of [[septicaemia]] on 10 September.<ref>Todd, 450–456; Tomalin, 275–283; Wardle, 302–306; Sunstein, 342–347.</ref> Godwin was devastated: he wrote to his friend [[Thomas Holcroft]], "I firmly believe there does not exist her equal in the world. I know from experience we were formed to make each other happy. I have not the least expectation that I can now ever know happiness again."<ref>Quoted in C. Kegan Paul, ''[http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_Archives/godwin/friends/toc.html William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries]'', London: Henry S. King and Co. (1876). Retrieved 11 March 2007.</ref> She was buried in the churchyard of [[St Pancras Old Church]], where her tombstone reads "Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, Author of ''A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'': Born 27 April 1759: Died 10 September 1797."<ref>Todd, 457.</ref>