Synopsis
Wollstonecraft's was the first published response to Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, appearing within a month. It was not a response on shared ground. Instead, this furious, disconnected, passionate, exalted polemic illustrates more clearly than any other literary confrontation of the time the nature of the gulf suddenly opened between supporters and opponents of the Revolution. For opponents, the Revolution was a challenge to the ordained structure of society and the natural order of things. For supporters, it was the religious or quasi-religious revelation of an alternative route for mankind. Composing this first Vindication (about humanity, not men) gave Wollstonecraft the basis on which to write the Vindication of the rights of woman in 1792.
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About the Author
Maryln Butler is on staff at University of Cambridge.
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