Introduction

Abstract

It has become a commonplace of feminist history that in the politically repressive climate of the post-revolutionary years, the voice of Mary Wollstonecraft was silenced. The fate of her reputation was apparently sealed in 1798 when William Godwin’s revealing memoirs brought to light her suicidal tendencies and the nature of her relationship with Gilbert Imlay. According to the conventional narrative, this moment signalled a closure in the articulation of revolutionary feminism, as female authors were constrained to forget the lessons Wollstonecraft had taught them. They must bow their heads and succumb to a new, restrictive cultural order.¹