April 27: Mary Wollstonecraft was born on
this day in 1759. Wollstonecraft's most popular book in her lifetime was not
the groundbreaking Vindication of the
Rights of Woman (1792), but Letters
Written in Sweden, Norway and Denmark (1796). As a travel narrative, Letters
offers colorful snapshots of Wollstonecraft's summer trip, but the book also
reflects her philosophical beliefs, her independent spirit, and the turmoil of
her relationship to the shady American businessman-adventurer, Gilbert Imlay.
Wollstonecraft gave birth to Imlay's child in May, 1794; a year later, having
discovered his infidelity, she attempted suicide; a month later she was on her
way to Scandinavia on his behalf, trying to salvage one of his business
ventures and soothe her spirits:
The pine
and fir woods, left entirely to nature, display an endless variety; and the
paths in the woods are not entangled with fallen leaves, which are only
interesting whilst they are fluttering between life and death. …I cannot tell
why—but death, under every form, appears to me like something getting free—to
expand in I know not what element…. The impetuous dashing of the rebounding
torrent from the dark cavities which mocked the exploring eye, produced an
equal activity in my mind: my thoughts darted from earth to heaven, and I asked
myself why I was chained to life and its misery?
Though
emotionally revealing, these Letters
for public consumption cannot match the raw power of the private letters she
sent Imlay throughout her trip. Alternately strong and pleading but always
forthright, Wollstonecraft begs Imlay to also speak plainly, and from the
heart: "But, for God's sake! spare me the anxiety of uncertainty!–I may
sink under the trial; but I will not complain."
Sink she almost did. Discovering more infidelity upon her return to
London, Wollstonecraft now writes Imlay to give instructions for the care of
their child, to wish that he may "never know by experience what you have
made me endure," and to give notice that she "shall plunge into the
Thames where there is the least chance of my being snatched from the death I
seek." Pulled from the water by fishermen, she went back to single
parenting and writing, and on to William Godwin. She died two years later, of
complications from giving birth to the future Mary Shelley.
Daybook is contributed by Steve King, who teaches in the English Department of Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. His literary daybook began as a radio series syndicated nationally in Canada. He can be found online at todayinliterature.com.
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