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View allMaria; or, The Wrongs of Woman
Wollstonecraft
1798
The sequel to a treatise, written as a woman's own testimony.
Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman
Mary Wollstonecraft · 1798
Wollstonecraft was working on this novel when she died in September 1797, eleven days after giving birth to the daughter who would become Mary Shelley. Her husband, William Godwin, published it the following year exactly as he found it — drafts, working notes, and several alternate endings she had not chosen between. It is the novel-form argument behind her Vindication of the Rights of Woman: a woman confined to a madhouse by her husband, writing her life for the daughter the law has taken from her, alongside the parallel testimony of Jemima, the servant who keeps her. Unfinished, it still argues its case in full.
21 chapters · 44,580 words · ~3.4 hr read
Contents
Editor's and Author's Prefaces
William Godwin's publisher's preface explaining the manuscript's unfinished state, followed by Wollstonecraft's own preface stating the novel's purpose.
The Novel, Chapters 1-14
Maria's confinement in a private madhouse, her memoir written for her infant daughter, her fellow inmate Jemima's story, and her growing attachment to Henry Darnford.
Godwin's Appendix
The editor's note on the fragmentary state of the manuscript at the point where Wollstonecraft's draft breaks off.
The Novel, Chapters 15-17
Maria's trial for adultery, staged by her husband George Venables, and the confrontation that follows.
Conclusion — The Unfinished Ending
Godwin's editorial account of Wollstonecraft's scattered notes and draft endings for the novel, preserved as she left them rather than resolved into one ending.