A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Wisehouse Classics - Original 1792 Edition)

Very beautiful copy of the book, and I very much look forward to reading it. However, nowhere on here or on the book does it mention that this book only includes extracts of Wollstonecraft's book, it is not actually the whole book. I bought this to use it for my political theory course at university, and discovered that it was useless because several chapters are missing. The Cambridge University Press edition I am now using instead is 452 pages, this one i 144. This should be clarified when buying the book.

Passionate, forceful, forthright, sharp, irritable, rigorous and oh so rational, what would Wollstonecraft think that over 200 years after her 1791 polemic we still have to argue about equal pay, body image, female aspiration, authorised social constructions of 'femininity' and 'masculinity' and other forms of politicised social and cultural inequality?Forging links between female subjugation and class oppression, between government tyranny and more personal forms of autocracy, Wollstonecraft, a passionate radical with an abhorrence of slavery, aristocratic and inherited power, remains a startlingly modern voice.

Mary Wollstoncraft is pretty well spot on with her observations of men and women as they were in Regency times. If she were to come back today she would be amazed at the progress that has been made in women's rights, yet in some ways things have not changed. Men have not changed. Mary Wollstoncraft was wrong in thinking that men could be changed. There is still the glass ceiling. There are still women who actually want to be dependent on men and seem to enjoy pleasing men, and that was certainly the lot for most women right up to the Second World War.Her ideas for education would seem to have been largely taken up; the various education acts have seen to that.The book as a whole is not terribly well structured and some of her sentences have a strange structure (even allowing for the Georgian period English), so you may find you have to read some sentences over again to grasp her meaning.Jane Austen may have read this book, because contained therein are those immortal words "a good reputation once lost is lost for ever", as in Pride and prejudice. Serious students of Jane Austen need to read this book in conjunction with Fordyce's Sermons to Young Women to gain a full appreciation of the attitudes of the time.

I was intrigued by the writing style of the author (in keeping with the times, I'm sure). Her ideas were an early version of the types of battles still going on today in terms of gender inequality. You can sense her frustration at not being taken seriously about being taken seriously simply because of her gender.

Indeed this is a great book, and Mary Wollstonecraft must have been a truly extraordinary personality. In terms of style, I must say that I have already read more beautiful English, and also her main argument about women, that they would change their character, if they were liberated and educated, has, I believe, been refuted during the last 220 years, as women are still no more and no less frivolous and cunning today as in Wollstonecraft's time. Nevertheless, her observations about mankind generally, such as her analysis on how to acquire virtue, make her book an invaluable reading experience. I love her literary voice, and she says many things that should really be considered even, and perhaps particularly, today.

This edition is missing the first chapter “The rights and involved duties of mankind considered”. If you are interested in Wollstonecraft Cambridge has published a great edition in 1995 edited by Sylvana Tomaselli witch also includes a very useful introduction, index, timeline, bibliographical note as well as to other Wollstonecraft texts. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0521436338/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_1

Fine if you really want to understand Mary Wollstonecraft's opinions on the rights of women and religion but very heavy going. I found the text rather rumbling and I quickly tired of her constant references to God and Christ.

Don't buy this. It's not the full copy of vindication of the rights of women - just an abridged version, as noted by earlier reviews. This isn't made clear at all. The picture on the front is blurry, the font chose bizarre - looks deeply unprofessional. Wasted my money on this.