Mary Wollstonecraft: Letters to Imlay |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adieu affection affectionate alive angry anguish appears arrive Bishop bless bosom canker-worm Captain child comfort complain consider continually creature dear death December 30 delicacy desire disappointment duty emotions endeavour eternal projects Eton Everina exertion expect eyes Fanny fatigued feel forget France give Godwin GOTHENBURG happiness harrassed Havre hear heart hope Hoxton hurt imagination Imlay inquietude LETTER little darling little girl live LONDON look Lord Kingsborough marriage Mary Godwin Mary Wollstonecraft meet misery Miss Hayes Morning necessary never night Norway pain PARIS passion pathy peace pecuniary Percy Shelley pleasure poor pretty woman principles reason receive recollect scarcely seems senses sensibility sentiment sincerely sisters Somers Town soon sorrow soul spirits struggle suffered sufficient suppose Sweden talk Talleyrand tears tell tenderness things thought tion TONSBERG torment trifles truly whilst wife wish Wollstone woman write written wrote yesterday
Popular passages
Page 25 - Amongst the feathered race, whilst the hen keeps the young warm, her mate stays by to cheer her; but it is sufficient for man to condescend to get a child, in order to claim it. - A man is a tyrant!
Page 204 - ... and even before I returned to England, you took great pains to convince me, that all my uneasiness was occasioned by the effect of a worn-out constitution — and you concluded your letter with these words, "Business alone has kept me from you. — Come to any port, and I will fly down to my two dear girls with a heart all their own.
Page xxxiv - ... since I entered France, I bowed to the majesty of the people, and respected the propriety of behaviour so perfectly in unison with my own feelings. I can scarcely tell you why, but an association of ideas made the tears flow insensibly from my eyes, when I saw Louis sitting, with more dignity than I expected from his character, in a hackney coach, going to meet death, where so many of his race have triumphed.
Page 85 - ... if a wandering of the heart, or even a caprice of the imagination detains you, there is an end of all my hopes of happiness. I could not forgive it if I would. I have gotten into a melancholy mood, you perceive. You know my opinion of men in general ; you know that I think them systematic tyrants, and that it is the rarest thing in the world to meet with a man with sufficient delicacy of feeling to govern desire. When I am thus sad I lament...
Page xxvi - Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice.
Page 24 - Considering the care and anxiety a woman must have about a child before it comes into the world, it seems to me, by a natural right, to belong to her.
Page 8 - I think there is sometimes a shorter cut to yours. 'With ninety-nine men out of a hundred, a very sufficient dash of folly is necessary to render a woman piquante, a soft word for desirable; and, beyond these casual ebullitions of sympathy, few look for enjoyment by fostering a passion in their hearts. One reason, in short, why I wish my whole sex to become wiser, is, that the foolish ones may not, by their pretty folly, rob those whose sensibility keeps down their vanity, of the few roses that afford...
Page 2 - You can scarcely imagine with what pleasure I anticipate the day, when we are to begin almost to live together ; and you would smile to hear how many plans of employment I have in my head, now that I am confident my heart has found peace in your bosom.
Page 58 - ... you will want to be told, over and over again, that our little Hercules is quite recovered. Besides looking at me, there are three other things, which delight her — to ride in a coach, to look at a scarlet waistcoat, and hear loud music — yesterday, at the...