Mary Wollstonecraft in France
Mary Wollstonecraft arrived in France alone, but soon met Gilbert Imlay, an American adventurer. Mary Wollstonecraft, like many of the foreign visitors in France, realized quickly that the Revolution was creating danger and chaos for everyone, and moved with Imlay to a house in the suburbs of Paris. A few months later, when she returned to Paris, she registered at the American Embassy as Imlay's wife, though they never actually married. As wife of an American citizen, Mary Wollstonecraft would be under the protection of the Americans.
Pregnant with Imlay's child, Wollstonecraft began to realize that Imlay's commitment to her was not as strong as she had expected. She followed him to Le Havre and then, after the birth of their daughter, Fanny, followed him to Paris. He returned almost immediately to London, leaving Fanny and Mary alone in Paris.
Reaction to the French Revolution
Allied with the Girondists of France, she watched in horror as these allies were guillotined. Thomas Paine was imprisoned in France, whose Revolution he had so nobly defended.
Writing through this time, Mary Wollstonecraft then published Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution, documenting her awareness that the revolution's grand hope for human equality was not being fully actualized.
Back to England, Off to Sweden
Mary Wollstonecraft finally returned to London with her daughter, and there for the first time attempted suicide over her despondency over Imlay's inconsistent commitment.
Imlay rescued Mary Wollstonecraft from her suicide attempt, and, a few months later, sent her on an important and sensitive business venture to Scandinavia. Mary, Fanny, and her daughter's nurse Marguerite, traveled through Scandinavia, attempting to track down a ship's captain who had apparently absconded with a fortune that was to be traded in Sweden for goods to import past the English blockade of France. She had with her a letter -- with little precedent in the context of 18th century women's status -- giving her legal power of attorney to represent Imlay in attempting to resolve his "difficulty" with his business partner and with the missing captain.
During her time in Scandinavia as she attempted to track down the people involved with the missing gold and silver, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote letters of her observations of the culture and people she met as well as of the natural world. She returned from her trip, and in London discovered that Imlay was living with an actress. She attempted another suicide, and was again rescued.
Her letters written from her trip, full of emotion as well as passionate political fervor, were published a year after her return, as Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Done with Imlay, Mary Wollstonecraft took up writing again, renewed her involvement in the circle of English Jacobins, defenders of the Revolution, and decided to renew one particular old and brief acquaintance.
Continued: About Mary Wollstonecraft
- The Legacy of Mary Wollstonecraft
- Rights in the Air
- What Rights?
- Grounded in Experience - Early Life
- Mary Wollstonecraft, Writer
- Mary Wollstonecraft and Gilbert Imlay: Paris and Sweden
- Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin: The End and Beyond
- Mary Wollstonecraft: Conclusions About Her Life and Work
Related Resources
- About Mary Wollstonecraft
- Mary Wollstonecraft Quotations
- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- The Unsex'd Females - Poem by Richard Polwhele
- Book List
- Biographies on the Net
- Wollstonecraft's Writings
- Analysis/Criticism
- Judith Sargent Murray
- Olympe de Gouges
- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
