2 h 39 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 65 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 65 pagesAbout this book
What if intelligence, feeling, and money still give you no say in your own life?
In Mary Wollstonecraft’s Mary: A Fiction, a young Englishwoman grows up with little affection and few choices. Her father arranges her marriage to Charles, a man she barely knows. Mary has a mind of her own, but her family treats her future as something for others to decide.
Friendship with Ann gives Mary a love her home cannot offer. When Ann’s fragile health worsens, Mary takes her to Lisbon, where she meets Henry, a sensitive man who shares her love of books. Through these bonds, the novel explores a woman’s search for meaning beyond the duties imposed on her.
What you’ll discover
- A mind of her own Meet a thoughtful heroine whose intelligence offers no simple escape from dependence.
- Friendship at the heart Follow Mary’s devotion to Ann, whose fragile health calls forth tenderness and determined care.
- Marriage without a choice See what family duty demands when a young woman cannot choose her husband.
- Books, nature, and purpose Explore the places Mary turns for meaning when her prescribed life leaves her unfulfilled.
- The roots of feminist writing Discover Wollstonecraft’s quiet challenge to an upbringing that teaches girls to be ornamental.
Who will love it
For readers who love eighteenth century fiction, feeling-filled stories and the roots of feminist writing, with friendship, marriage and a woman's search for independence at their heart.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A neglected girl learns to feel deeply
- Friendship with Ann becomes her first great love
- A marriage arranged without her consent
- A voyage to Lisbon and a new companion
- What the story is really about
- How the book is told and how to read it
Who’s who
- MaryThe heroine, a feeling and thoughtful young woman, neglected by her family and married against her will, who looks for love and purpose of her own.
- AnnMary's frail, poor and gentle friend, whom Mary loves above all others and for whose health she will go to great lengths.
- HenryA cultured, sensitive man in poor health whom Mary meets in Lisbon, and who shares her love of books and feeling.
- CharlesMary's husband by arrangement, a man she barely knows, who leaves for the Continent soon after the wedding.
- Mary's motherA fashionable invalid fond of sentimental novels and lapdogs, who favours her eldest son and gives Mary little affection.
- Mary's fatherA careless, domineering man who spends for his own pleasure and arranges his daughter's marriage.
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- Audiobook
- 2 h 39 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in, 65 pages: 6,95 USD when you start free, 12,95 USD on its own.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in, 65 pages: 13,95 USD when you start free, 19,95 USD on its own.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Mary: A Fiction
by Mary Wollstonecraft · 1788
Married against her wishes, Mary seeks love and purpose in a world that gives her little control over her own life.
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In short
Mary: A Fiction is a short novel by Mary Wollstonecraft, published in 1788. She wrote it while working as a governess in Ireland, before she became known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A neglected girl learns to feel deeply
The novel opens with Mary's family. Her father is a violent and careless man who spends his money on his own pleasures. Her mother is an invalid by habit, a woman of fashion who has read too many sentimental novels and takes more interest in her lapdogs than in her children.
The mother has eyes for one child only, Mary's elder brother, who will inherit the family property. Mary is left to herself. She has no teacher in love, so she learns to feel on her own, and she learns it from books, from the countryside and from the poor families around her home.
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What is Mary: A Fiction about?
It follows Mary, a neglected daughter who is married off young to a man she barely knows. She finds love in her friendship with Ann and later in a bond with Henry, and the book questions how women are raised and married.
When was Mary: A Fiction written?
Wollstonecraft published it in 1788, when she was working as a governess in Ireland. It was her first novel and came before her famous Vindication of the Rights of Woman by several years.
Is Mary: A Fiction autobiographical?
Scholars see traces of Wollstonecraft's own life in it, especially her neglect at home and her close friendship with Fanny Blood. The story and its heroine are still fiction, not a record of her life.
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
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