This year marks 225 years since Mary Wollstonecraft’s, ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ was published – one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy.
Now local author Val Wise has published a novel, ‘The Wrongs of Woman’ which follows the 15 year-old Mary during her time in Beverley East Yorkshire.
In March 2017 more than 80 prominent female figures began a campaign to erect a statue to honour Mary Wollstonecraft’s contribution to human rights. She was an inspiration for the feminist movement, women’s suffrage and equality in education.
Val Wise said:
“I have been fascinated by Mary Wollstonecraft since researching her views on education for a History degree attained after I retired. I wanted to know what prompted her determination to educate women in order to earn their own living and cease their reliance on men. What led her to such an unconventional lifestyle involving travelling independently around Europe, having several love affairs, becoming an unmarried mother and attempting suicide as well as writing many influential books?”
As a teenager Mary Wollstonecraft lived in Beverley between 1768 and 1774. Beverley historian George Poulson in 1829 wrote of her- ‘although born of poor parents’ she was ‘a woman of extraordinary genius but whose history and opinions are unhappily calculated to excite a mixture of admiration and scorn.’
She struck up an important friendship with Jane Arden whose father was a natural philosopher or scientist in Beverley. Many letters exchanged during their friendship have been preserved which give a sense of how she felt about the town and its people.
Although she died aged 38 from an infection after giving birth to the future Mary Shelley, author of ‘Frankenstein’, she lived an extraordinary and eventful life. She met notable figures of the time like Robert Southey, William Blake, Horne Tooke and Thomas Paine. Many biographies have been written about her.
‘The Wrongs of Women’ by Val Wise conjectures whether anything occurring during her time in Beverley could account for her later opinions and turbulent love life. The narrative follows a 15-year old Mary Wollstonecraft for two weeks in the sultry summer of 1774. Although the places and some of the people did exist in Beverley at that time, the events in the book are entirely fictitious.
‘The Wrongs of Women’ by Val Wise is available on Amazon in paperback priced £5.99 and on Kindle for 99p – to find out more click here.
