Her own woman - Diane Jacobs

One of the most controversial figures of her day, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) is perhaps best known for her "Vindication of the Rights of Woman" - her plea for female independence borne out of intense and bitter personal experience. Diane Jacobs' biography narrates how, from an early age, Mary had rebelled against male authority: witnessing her mother's suffering, and the death in childbirth of her close friend Fanny Blood, she had asserted "I do not wish them (women) to have power over men, but over themselves".;Mary's early escape from her home, and her employment as governess, enabled her to enjoy a successful literary career: she befriended many of the leading radicals of the day and, like them, was inspired by the impending French Revolution, travelling to Paris to witness the Terror. She produced an illegitimate daughter and married William Godwin before dying after the birth of her second daughter (Mary Shelley). To most contemporaries her ideas on personal freedom were shocking. Yet at the heart of this inspirational woman was a life of emotional and intellectual complexity.