Mary Wollstonecraft: A Literary Life by Caroline Franklin

Abstract

828 Reviews filtered through a chronic splitting headache, amovement away from the rational theology of her intimate friend, Henry More, towards Quaker beliefs in mystical transformations effected by inward light. Conway's attempts to deal with her pain resulted in a final understanding that converts chronic pain from mere sensation to a transformative perception of the redemptive power of Christ. 'The Consumption ofMeat in an Age ofMaterialism' by George Rousseau focuses on the proudly meat-eating English. Its most stirring and vivid images result from the absence of effective dentistry, capturing a long eighteenth century of decaying mouths rancid with cavities and distorted by wooden teeth. The last two essays explore the workings of imagination and scientific scepticism. Peter Fosl's 'Cracks in the Cement of the Universe' studies Hume's use of the associ ation of ideas to counteract scepticism, and James G. Buickerood's 'Empiricism with and without Observation' examines thought experiments inNewton and Locke. These essays draw upon early modern science to reveal a variety of fascinating and unusual subjects that draw us to perceive the period in new ways. This review does very rough justice to varieties of unique perceptions occasioned by the focus on science. UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH KENNETH W. GRAHAM Mary Wollstonecraft:A Literary Life. By CAROLINEFRANKLIN. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2004. XiX+240pp. C50. ISBN 0-333-9725I-I. In line with the aims of the publisher's Literary Lives series, this study is at its strongest when analysing the intellectual and social context within which Mary Woll stonecraft operated. Therefore, the readings ofWollstonecraft's works, although com petent in tracing major themes, are at their most illuminating when most contextual. In particular, Caroline Franklin's positioning of other women writers for children in terms of their religious and political views sheds interesting light onWollstonecraft's own educational projects, while remarks made on Blake's work and reaction toWoll stonecraft's writing for children are suggestive. Here comprehensive footnotes pro vide direction for further study. The book is also informative on works that have often in the past received less critical attention, notably on theHistory andMoral View of theOrigins and Progress of the French Revolution, which Franklin sites in relation to the work of other contemporary commentators, e.g. Helen Maria Williams. Her dis cussion of the work in terms of developments in Wollstonecraft's own thought is also revealing. Wollstonecraft's complicated relationship with Imlay is treated sensitively and valuable contextual information concerning the composition of the resultant Let tersWritten during a Short Residence in Sweden ismade more accessible. Similarly, Franklin provides useful contextual information on The Wrongs ofWoman; or, Maria, exploring both Godwin's interpretation ofWollstonecraft's incomplete text and the contemporary debate on divorce. Franklin's study is informative onWollstonecraft's divided attitude toprint culture. It demonstrates her belief that participation in the public sphere of print would aid general enlightenment and social progress. However, it does not ignore her fears and those of her like-minded contemporaries of the dangerous power of such print culture when in authoritarian hands or when received by ill-informed and impressionable readers. Franklin in fact gives an interesting perspective on the publishing circle around Joseph Johnson and on the broader debate concerning the political role of print. As such, the study's nuanced account of the publishing scene will operate as an antidote to anyone inclined tomake crass generalizations about the position of women writers during the period. MLR, I0I.3, 2oo6 829 Indeed, in this light, Franklin's concluding remarks on the effect of the new empha sis on context upon our reading ofWollstonecraft are also significant. Having recog nized Wollstonecraft's continuing influence upon generations of feminists, Franklin makes the point that, given this new contextual understanding, Wollstonecraft is 'less recognisably our contemporary': 'This eighteenth-century woman has an agenda so distinctly of its time-born out of religious as well as of political convictions-that we need scare quotes to call her a "feminist" at all' (p. 2IO). Yet Wollstonecraft's own 'tradition of feminism' is, as Franklin says, 'saturated in the word, in literacy and literature, in a participation in print culture and a concern with representation...