2 h 47 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 2 h 47 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Should rights belong to everyone—or pass from parent to child like land?
In A Vindication of the Rights of Men, Mary Wollstonecraft answers Edmund Burke’s attack on the French Revolution and its English supporters, including Richard Price. Her political pamphlet challenges the claim that age makes a custom good, or that inherited rank gives anyone a stronger claim to liberty.
Burke defends property, tradition and inherited liberties. Wollstonecraft asks what these protect—and whom they leave exposed to injustice. She argues that rights rest on reason and God, rather than ancestry. Her anger drives a sharp contest over human dignity, political power and the difference between fine feelings and justice.
What you’ll discover
- Rights beyond inheritance Follow Wollstonecraft’s case for rights grounded in reason, not handed down like an estate.
- Tradition under scrutiny Watch her question whether an old custom deserves respect simply because it survives.
- The cost of rank See how her attack on inherited wealth exposes the injustice that property can shield.
- Feeling put to the test Explore her sharp reply to Burke’s tender portrait of Marie Antoinette and lost chivalry.
- Fine words, weak arguments Discover why she treats Burke’s gift for grand feeling as a political danger.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you like sharp political argument, the history of ideas about liberty and equality, and the voices that shaped modern debates on rights and class.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Reason must steer, not feeling alone
- Rights come from God, not ancestors
- The old constitution grew in darkness
- English liberty guards property more than people
- Inherited wealth and rank corrupt everyone
- Pity for show is vanity, not virtue
- Church wealth belongs to justice, not tradition
- The poor need justice, and the argument lasts
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Défense des droits des hommes
by Mary Wollstonecraft · 1790
Mary Wollstonecraft answers Edmund Burke in a fiery letter that defends reason and the rights of ordinary people.
Challenging2–5 hours to readfrançais
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In short
What do you say to a famous man who has just praised old customs, rank and feeling, while the poor go hungry? In 1790 Mary Wollstonecraft answered with a letter.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Reason must steer, not feeling alone
Wollstonecraft says plainly that she attacks Burke's principles, not his person. Her deepest charge is that he puts instinct above thought. He calls it feeling or inborn sentiment. She calls it sensibility, and she thinks it has become the craze of the age.
She grants that feelings matter. They give heat, she says, but not light. Animals hope and fear, love and hate, yet they gain no virtue, because they cannot improve. Human beings can, and that power raises them above the beasts.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1790
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 1 h 45 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Men. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-men.
Wollstonecraft, M. (2026). A vindication of the rights of men. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-men (Original work published 1790)
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Men. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-men.
@book{wollstonecraft2026vindication,
author = {Wollstonecraft, Mary},
title = {A Vindication of the Rights of Men},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-men},
note = {First published 1790}
}
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What is A Vindication of the Rights of Men about?
It is Mary Wollstonecraft's open letter answering Edmund Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution. She argues that rights come from reason and God, not from inherited custom, and she criticizes rank, property, and empty sentiment.
Who was Edmund Burke and why did she attack him?
Burke was a British statesman and writer who praised tradition, rank, and the English constitution in his Reflections. Wollstonecraft answered because she thought his appeals to feeling and old custom excused injustice toward the poor.
Is A Vindication of the Rights of Men connected to her book on women?
Yes. This earlier work argues that reason, not rank or instinct, is the basis of rights. She extends the same logic to women in her later Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and a passage here already attacks the idea of weak beauty.
The author
Mary Wollstonecraft
1759–1797 · English feminist writer and philosopher
Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer born in London in 1759. She lived in England, Ireland and France. She wrote Mary: A Fiction (1788), A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). She died in London in 1797.
More by Mary Wollstonecraft
Voir tous ses livresMore like this
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