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Love in the Time of Revolution: Transatlantic Literary Radicalism and Historical Change, 1793-1818

Online ISBN:
9781469608266
Print ISBN:
9781469607504
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press
Book

Love in the Time of Revolution: Transatlantic Literary Radicalism and Historical Change, 1793-1818

Published online:
24 July 2014
Published in print:
10 June 2013
Online ISBN:
9781469608266
Print ISBN:
9781469607504
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press

Abstract

In 1798, English essayist and novelist William Godwin ignited a transatlantic scandal with Memoirs of the Author of “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.” Most controversial were the details of the romantic liaisons of Godwin's wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, with both American Gilbert Imlay and Godwin himself. Wollstonecraft's life and writings became central to a continuing discussion about love's place in human society. Literary radicals argued that the cultivation of intense friendship could lead to the renovation of social and political institutions, whereas others maintained that these freethinkers were indulging their own desires with a disregard for stability and higher authority. Through correspondence and novels, the author of this book finds an ideal lens to view authors, characters, and readers all debating love's power to alter men and women in the world around them. He argues for Wollstonecraft's and Godwin's enduring influence on fiction published in Great Britain and the United States, and explores Mary Godwin Shelley's endeavors to sustain her mother's faith in romantic love as an engine of social change.

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