A Vindication of the Rights of Men - Couverture souple

Wollstonecraft, Mary

 
9781605204543: A Vindication of the Rights of Men

Synopsis

Revolutionary in all senses of the word, this classic treatise on republicanism, individual merit, and inherent human worth was published in England to great acclaim in 1790, a response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, which denounced the upheaval on the Continent and voiced support for the aristocracy. Formulated as a letter written to him, this pamphlet--the blog posting of its day--is a passionate and beautifully witty rebuke of crumbling and ineffectual tradition and a stirring call to replace hidebound monarchy with a society in which all citizens--men and women, moneyed and working class--are granted equal opportunity to access wealth both material and spiritual. Originally published anonymously--and selling out its first edition in weeks--a second edition revealed its author as female... which led to its inevitable dismissal as the "irrational," "emotional" work of a "mere" woman. Today, however, we recognize this as a foundational work of feminist theory--one both remarkably intellectual and highly entertaining. British writer and educator MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (1759-1797), the mother of Frankenstein author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, espoused her then-radical feminist and liberal philosophies in other such works as Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) and History and Moral View of the Origins and Progress of the French Revolution (1793).

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Présentation de l'éditeur

In 1790 came that "extraordinary outburst of passionate intelligence," Mary Wollstonecraft's reply to Edmund Burke's attack on the principles of the French Revolution entitled a "Vindication of the Rights of Men." In this pamphlet she held up to scorn Burke's defence of monarch and nobility, his merciless sentimentality. "It is one of the most dashing political polemics in the language," Mr. Taylor writes enthusiastically, "and has not had the attention it deserves. . . . For sheer virility and grip of her verbal instruments it is probably the finest of her works. Some of her sentences have the quality of a sword-edge, and they flash with the rapidity of a practised duellist. It was written at a white heat of indignation; yet it is altogether typical of the writer that, in the midst of the work, quite suddenly, she had one of her fits of callousness and morbid temper, and declared she would not go on. With great skill Johnson persuaded her to take it up again; and with equal suddenness her eagerness returned, and the book was finished and published before any one else could answer Burke."

Présentation de l'éditeur

"A Vindication of the Rights of Men", by Mary Wollstonecraft.Mary Wollstonecraft was british writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights (1759-1797).

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