Mary Wollstonecraft: A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of British Authors) by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
Published: 2021-01-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Becoming a Writer

“How many women thus waste life away the prey of discontent, who might have practised as physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, and stood erect.”

—Mary Wollstonecraft

Tired of the limited options available to her as a career, Mary finally turned to the one field she had not considered pursuing professionally—that of being a writer. She had certainly always been in the habit of writing and had even become a published author through her previous book Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, but it was only after her dismissal as a governess that she considered taking a stab at the craft fulltime.

Upon returning to London, Mary immediately set out to re-establish her connection to her previous publisher, Joseph Johnson. Ever supportive of Mary’s literary efforts, Johnson not only agreed to help her get more of her work published, but he also allowed her to stay at his home until she found a suitable place to live.

Thanks to Johnson, Mary found a means of subsistence by working as a translator of German and French texts. On at least one occasion, she also tried her hand at translating some Italian works but promptly returned the manuscript assigned to her out of fear that she wasn’t well versed enough to do a proficient job. She wrote Johnson at the time, “I find I could not translate the manuscript well. . . . I cannot bear to do anything I cannot do well.”

Mary knew what she was good at and what she wasn’t, and she refused to do a mediocre job just to get paid. This trait was something that Johnson would come to admire about her, and in the future, he tried to send work her way that he knew she would approve of. Johnson also helped her out by tasking her with writing some reviews for novels that were being discussed in his periodical called The Analytical Review.

Mary was tiding her time before she published an original piece that would bear her name. Written while she was a governess in Ireland, although the tale could be seen as somewhat autobiographical, the novel she penned is indeed a work of fiction. In fact, the official title—ostensibly to clear up any confusion that it was real—was Mary: A Fiction. Nevertheless, many of the characters seem to be caricatures of those who dwelled at the Kingsborough estate. For example, the mother of the household in the novel was depicted just as Mary perceived Lady Kingsborough, a woman who “preferred dogs to children.” That same year of 1788, Mary also published a less sensational work entitled Original Stories from Real Life, which was similarly reflective of her time as a governess.

Just as eventful as the literary works she produced for Johnson were the established writers, philosophers, and artists that Mary met along the way. Thomas Paine, John Bonnycastle, and Henry Fuseli—among others—all frequently visited Johnson and thus came into contact with Mary. It was Fuseli in particular for whom Mary is said to have developed a “genuine affection.

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