Mary Wollstonecraft & William Godwin

• Mary Shelley's parents were among the most important and controversial writers of the late 18th and early 19th century.
• Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-1797 was a feminist writer who published works of fiction and many books on education, morality and politics.
• A Vindications of the Rights of Women 1792 is Mary Wollstonecraft's most famous work.
• Mary Wollstonecraft argued for a change in social attitudes towards the role and potential of women.
• Mary Wollstonecraft visited Paris to observe the aftermath of the French revolution and wrote A Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution 1792.
• Between 1794 and 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft lived with American writer Gilbert Imlay, had her daughter Fanny.
• Mary Wollstonecraft's relation ship with William Godwin began in 1769 and they married a few months before the birth of Mary.
• William Godwin 1756-1836 began working as a dissenting minister but lost his faith and became an atheist and political anarchist.
• William Godwin believed that if people acted according to reason there would be no need for laws and social institutions, as argued in his most famous work An Enquiry into political justice 1793.
• William Godwin's propagandist novel, The Adventures of Caleb Williams 1794, is a psychological study concerning tyranny exerted on weaker members of society by those of power.
• William Godwin wrote novels till his death.