tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836032513708232334.post1091794342596654155..comments2024-03-12T04:39:29.868+00:00Comments on A Vindication of the Rights of Mary: Jane Austen: a lost daughter? Part oneRoberta Wedgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619847452197496153noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836032513708232334.post-8773317389330761512013-03-13T15:07:28.659+00:002013-03-13T15:07:28.659+00:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06591776957240518987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836032513708232334.post-85857019215149865552012-01-16T09:32:19.364+00:002012-01-16T09:32:19.364+00:00Oh, yes, *her*! I remember now. As for scandalous ...Oh, yes, *her*! I remember now. As for scandalous marriages, well, Mary's managed to alienate a fair few people: Godwin's friends saw him as transgressing the anarchist principles he had written about, and Mary's wider circle were forced to recognise that she had never had a right to the name Mrs Imlay, which she had been using for some years. And then there is Angela Burdett-Coutts, the richest heiress in the kingdom: for 52 years she was devoted to one woman, after whose death she married her 29 year old American secretary. She is the other Famous Dead Bisexual in Old St Pancras graveyard, alongside Mary.<br />As for Jane Austen being a Tory - stay tuned...Roberta Wedgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13619847452197496153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836032513708232334.post-953157238756927702012-01-16T01:31:05.002+00:002012-01-16T01:31:05.002+00:00Catherine Sawbridge Macauley is more or less a con...Catherine Sawbridge Macauley is more or less a contemporary of Wollstonecraft,with similar views about women's education; she wrote an 8-volume history of England. However, her main interest seems to have been politics; she is considered a Whig, with strong republican and reformist views, actually visited America and stayed at Mt. Vernon. At about age 47, she married her 2nd husband, a Mr. Graham, who was in his 20's, a serious scandal that damaged her reputation in England. She died in 1791. Jane's politics were much more Tory, and she seemed to have a low opinion of America, so one wonders...Lauren Gilberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02938146663557663891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836032513708232334.post-22754050423038335912012-01-15T22:01:02.843+00:002012-01-15T22:01:02.843+00:00Thank you for writing -- and for stimulating me to...Thank you for writing -- and for stimulating me to begin the JA journey! I agree that the word "feminism" is tricky. "Proto-feminism" seems to be the term used: that which led to what we recognise today as feminism. There will be more from Kirkman tomorrow. Tell me more about McCauley: I don't know much about JA, except by having repeatedly read her novels.Roberta Wedgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13619847452197496153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836032513708232334.post-19737314872526554842012-01-15T19:07:02.171+00:002012-01-15T19:07:02.171+00:00I read your post with great interest. One area wi...I read your post with great interest. One area with which I have always had difficulty<br />using the term "feminist" for the women writers of the 18th and 19th centuries; it has such specific connotations today that I am not sure it can be fairly applied to previous generations. Having said that, I found your article to be well-written and very thought-provoking. I especially like the quote from Margaret Kirkman. Well done! I think, for Austen, the resonance was clearly the issue of unequal marriages due to deficiencies in education, and the financial inequities to which women were subject, and VINDICATION addresses those issues so specifically. (A link between McCauley and JA seems much more problematic to me, but I've read very little of McCauley's work-her politics, and passion for America, would definitely be an issue for JA, I think!) I look forward to the rest of the series!Lauren Gilberthttp://www.heyerwood.comnoreply@blogger.com