Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark
Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark
Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark
Audiobook5 hours

Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

()

About this audiobook

Published in 1796, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark is a personal travel narrative by the eighteenth-century British feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft. The twenty-five letters cover a wide range of topics, from sociological reflections on Scandinavia and its peoples to philosophical questions regarding identity. Published by Wollstonecraft's career-long publisher, Joseph Johnson, it was the last work issued during her lifetime.

Wollstonecraft undertook her tour of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark in order to retrieve a stolen treasure ship for her lover, Gilbert Imlay. Believing that the journey would restore their strained relationship, she eagerly set off. However, over the course of the three months she spent in Scandinavia, she realized that Imlay had no intention of renewing the relationship. The letters, which constitute the text, drawn from her journal and from missives she sent to Imlay, reflect her anger and melancholy over his repeated betrayals. Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark is therefore both a travel narrative and an autobiographical memoir.

Using the rhetoric of the sublime, Wollstonecraft explores the relationship between self and society in the text. She values subjective experience, particularly in relation to nature; champions the liberation and education of women; and illustrates the detrimental effects of commerce on society.

Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark was Wollstonecraft's most popular book in the 1790s—it sold well and was reviewed favorably by most critics.

Wollstonecraft's future husband, philosopher William Godwin, wrote: "If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book."The book also influenced Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who drew on its themes and its aesthetic. While the book initially inspired readers to travel to Scandinavia, it failed to retain its popularity after the publication of Godwin's Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1798, which revealed Wollstonecraft's unorthodox private life." (Summary from Wikipedia, revised a little by Stav Nisser.)

LanguageEnglish
PublisherLibriVox
Release dateAug 25, 2014
Author

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was an English writer. She is best known for her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she puts forth the visionary argument that women and men should receive the same education and are moral equals in the eyes of God. One of the most pivotal thinkers of the Enlightenment, she is widely considered to be the first feminist philosopher, and her work strongly influenced the twentieth-century feminist movement.

Related to Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark

Related audiobooks

Related articles

Reviews for Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings

0 ratings0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words