Listings for Reader:
Mary Wollstonecraft
Click here to select all entries:
Madame de Genlis : Letters on Education
'While at Mitchelstown she brushed up on her French by reading Madame de Genlis's Letters on Education, Louis Sebastien Mercier's comedy "Mon Bonnet de Nuit", and the Baroness de Montoliere's novel "Caroline de Litchfield". The first she pronounced "wonderfully clever", and it may well have proved helpful to her as a teacher; the last she described as "One of the prettiest things I have ever read", and it perhaps suggested that her own life could serve as the basis of a sentimental novel'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
Louis Sebastien Mercier : Mon Bonnet de Nuit
'While at Mitchelstown she brushed up on her French by reading Madame de Genlis's "Letters on Education", Louis Sebastien Mercier's comedy "Mon Bonnet de Nuit", and the Baroness de Montoliere's novel "Caroline de Litchfield". The first she pronounced "wonderfully clever", and it may well have proved helpful to her as a teacher; the last she described as "One of the prettiest things I have ever read", and it perhaps suggested that her own life could serve as the basis of a sentimental novel'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
Baroness de Montoliere : Caroline de Litchfield
'While at Mitchelstown she brushed up on her French by reading Madame de Genlis's "Letters on Education", Louis Sebastien Mercier's comedy "Mon Bonnet de Nuit", and the Baroness de Montoliere's novel "Caroline de Litchfield". The first she pronounced "wonderfully clever", and it may well have proved helpful to her as a teacher; the last she described as "One of the prettiest things I have ever read", and it perhaps suggested that her own life could serve as the basis of a sentimental novel'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
William Cowper :
'In Dublin, she complained that she was not reading a great deal, but in the same breath remarked that books provided her only relaxation. She must have at least browsed in the volume of Cowper's poems and another of sermons by her friend John Hewlett which Johnson sent her. She told Everina at one point that she was reading "some philosophical lectures, and metaphysical sermons - for my own private improvement". These works could well have included the writings of Dr Price. The only writer in this field whom she singled out for comment, however, was the orthodox William Paley, whose "Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy" she commended to Eliza for its definition of virtue: "the doing good to mankind in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
John Hewlett : [sermons]
'In Dublin, she complained that she was not reading a great deal, but in the same breath remarked that books provided her only relaxation. She must have at least browsed in the volume of Cowper's poems and another of sermons by her friend John Hewlett which Johnson sent her. She told Everina at one point that she was reading "some philosophical lectures, and metaphysical sermons - for my own private improvement". These works could well have included the writings of Dr Price. The only writer in this field whom she singled out for comment, however, was the orthodox William Paley, whose "Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy" she commended to Eliza for its definition of virtue: "the doing good to mankind in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
William Paley : Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy
'In Dublin, she complained that she was not reading a great deal, but in the same breath remarked that books provided her only relaxation. She must have at least browsed in the volume of Cowper's poems and another of sermons by her friend John Hewlett which Johnson sent her. She told Everina at one point that she was reading "some philosophical lectures, and metaphysical sermons - for my own private improvement". These works could well have included the writings of Dr Price. The only writer in this field whom she singled out for comment, however, was the orthodox William Paley, whose "Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy" she commended to Eliza for its definition of virtue: "the doing good to mankind in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
Hugh Blair : Letters on Rhetoric
[Mary Wollstonecraft] 'told Everina that she had been reading Hugh Blair's "Letters on Rhetoric" and found them "an intellectual feast".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile
'the book that prompted [Mary Wollstonecraft's] fullest comment was Rousseau's "Emile". It was bound to appeal to her; it was a treatise on education, a metaphysical essay - at times almost a sermon - and a sentimental novel, all in one'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
[various] : [various works]
[compiling the anthology "The Female Reader", Mary Wollstonecraft spent] 'long hours reading, for the extracts included came from widely scattered sources and might consist of only a few lines from a long work.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Unknown
Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile
'I am now reading Rousseau's "Emile", and love his paradoxes. He chuses a common capacity to educate - and gives as a reason, that a genius will educate itself - however he rambles into a chimerical world into which I have too often [wand]ered - and draws the usual conclusion that all is vanity and vexation of spirit.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
Richard Price : Sermons on the Christian Doctrine, as Received by the Different Denominations of Christians
'I had rather you would not read Dr Price's sermons, as they would lead you into controversial disputes, and your limited range of books would not afford you a clue - the Dissertations are less entangled with controversial points, and contain useful truths - coming warm from the heart they find the direct road to it; but the sermons require more profound thinking, are not calculated to improve the generality'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
Richard Price : Four Dissertations
'I had rather you would not read Dr Price's sermons, as they would lead you into controversial disputes, and your limited range of books would not afford you a clue - the Dissertations are less entangled with controversial points, and contain useful truths - coming warm from the heart they find the direct road to it; but the sermons require more profound thinking, are not calculated to improve the generality.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
Jacques Necker : De l'Importance des opinions Religeuses
'M. Necker, the late Minister...has written a book entitled "De l'Importance des opinions Religeuses", it pleases me and I want to know the character of the man in domestic life and public estimation &c.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
[probably] Christian Gotthilf Salzmann : [probably] Moralisches Elementarbuch
'I am so fatigued with poring over a German book, I scarcely can collect my thoughts or even spell English words.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
John Milton : Paradise Lost
'Whenever I read Milton's description of paradise - the happiness, which he so poetically describes fills me with benevolent satisfaction - yet, I cannot help viewing them, I mean the first pair - as if they were my inferiors - inferiors because they could find happiness in a world like this.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book
Mr Barlow : [letters to his wife]
'Delighted with some of her husband's letters, [Mrs Barlow] has exultingly shewn them to me; and, though I took care not to let her see it, I was almost disgusted with the tender passages which afforded her so much satisfaction, because they were turned so prettily that they looked more like the cold ingenuity of the head than the warm overflowings of the heart.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Manuscript: Letter
Mary Hays : Cursory Remarks
'I have just cast my eye over your sensible little pamphlet, and found fewer of the superlatives, exquisite, fascinating &c, all of the feminine gender, than I expected. Some of the sentiments, it is true, are rather obscurely expressed; but if you continue to write you will imperceptibly correct this fault...'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Manuscript: Unknown, MS version of pamphlet
Jane West : A Gossip's Story
'I have sent you the "Gossip Story" to review, as you wish to read it, but I would thank you if you would do it immediately, because Johnson is in want of materials for the present month. The great merit of this work is, in my opinion, the display of the small causes which destroy matrimonial felicity and peace.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: BookManuscript: Unknown
Anne Radcliffe : Italian, The
' I would advise you to read Mrs R's "Italian" in your own chamber, not to lose the picturesque images with which it abounds.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: BookManuscript: Unknown
Addington : [Letters]
' I send you Addington's Letters. I find the melancholy ones the most interesting - There is a grossness in the raptures from which I turn...'
