ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an extract from the biography MEMOIRS OF MRS. GODWIN. There is little to be remarked of Mary Wollstonecraft's infancy. Her father was so versatile in his pecuniary character, and so tyrannical at home, as scarcely to be endured by his connexions; and though her mother was better disposed than her father, Mary had no education bestowed on her. Her stay in Ireland did not exceed twelve months, though she had cultivated many acquaintances, while there; and in the summer of 1787 she produced “Mary, a Fiction,” while resident at the Bristol Hot-wells. From, the autumn of the same year, we may date her literary life. Her life had not been happy. The little enjoyment which same had lighted up in her almost desolate soul, vanished at the torch of love. “The heart wants something to be kind to!” That something was not for her—she had known disappointment only.
