ABSTRACT
George Eliots brief essay is important to any survey of Wollstonecraft’s posthumous reputation for a reason that may seem paradoxical: it mention her personal reputation at all. The nearest Eliot comes is in her acknowledgment that there is ‘in some quarters a vague prejudice against the Rights of Woman as in some way or other a reprehensible book’, but even here it is the work rather than the woman who is viewed as having a questionable past. Doubtless her own desire to be viewed as a serious writer without regard for the irregularities of her private life contributed to her willingness to do the same for Wollstonecraft.
