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La educación de las hijas
Mary Wollstonecraft, uno de los pilares del feminismo, fue tan rompedora en su época que se la tildó de La fiera con enaguas. Wollstonecraft murió de fiebres puerperales tras dar a luz a Mary Shelley, autora de Frankenstein o el moderno Prometeo. Más conocida por escribir Vindicación de los derechos de la mujer, La educación de las hijas es un antecedente literario en el que realiza una encendida defensa de la educación femenina y del placer intelectual como medio de encontrar el equilibrio existencial, más allá de las pasiones. Asimismo, es una radiografía sociohistórica de los retos con que afrontaban las mujeres su futuro, aportando consejos a otras madres y revelando sus miedos y prevenciones. Amelia Valcárcel, en su prólogo, introduce esta nueva edición de una manera certera y lúcida.
La obra cumbre de Mary Wollstonecraft fue Vindicación de los derechos de la mujer, de la que La educación de las hijas es un magnífico antecedente.
La autora tuvo una intensa vida intelectual y un comportamiento libérrimo que le granjeó un daño reputacional que afectó a la difusión de su obra. Sin embargo, con el surgimiento del movimiento feminista, la defensa de Wollstonecraft de la igualdad para la mujer y sus críticas a la feminidad convencional hicieron de ella una figura referencial del feminismo,
Tras dos romances malogrados con Henry Fuseli y Gilbert Imlay, Wollstonecraft se casó con el filósofo William Godwin, uno de los precursores del movimiento anarquista; con él tuvo una hija, Mary Shelley, autora de Frankenstein y esposa de Percy Bysshe Shelley. Wollstonecraft murió con 38 años por las complicaciones del nacimiento de su hija.
Esta nueva edición de la obra viene prologada por Amelia Valcárcel, que introduce con maestría y lucidez la vida y el contexto histórico de la mujer a finales del siglo XVIII.
Las dos primeras obras de Wollstonecraft tratan el tema de la educación. La primera de ellas, La educación de las hijas, es una guía de comportamiento, un texto que aconseja no solo acerca de asuntos morales como la benevolencia, sino también acerca de los relacionados con la etiqueta, como el vestir. Este tipo de escritos era extremadamente popular durante el siglo XVIII, en particular entre la clase media emergente, la cual veía en ellos la forma de desarrollar unas costumbres en la clase media que desafiaran el código de comportamiento
La obra cumbre de Mary Wollstonecraft fue Vindicación de los derechos de la mujer, de la que La educación de las hijas es un magnífico antecedente.
La autora tuvo una intensa vida intelectual y un comportamiento libérrimo que le granjeó un daño reputacional que afectó a la difusión de su obra. Sin embargo, con el surgimiento del movimiento feminista, la defensa de Wollstonecraft de la igualdad para la mujer y sus críticas a la feminidad convencional hicieron de ella una figura referencial del feminismo,
Tras dos romances malogrados con Henry Fuseli y Gilbert Imlay, Wollstonecraft se casó con el filósofo William Godwin, uno de los precursores del movimiento anarquista; con él tuvo una hija, Mary Shelley, autora de Frankenstein y esposa de Percy Bysshe Shelley. Wollstonecraft murió con 38 años por las complicaciones del nacimiento de su hija.
Esta nueva edición de la obra viene prologada por Amelia Valcárcel, que introduce con maestría y lucidez la vida y el contexto histórico de la mujer a finales del siglo XVIII.
Las dos primeras obras de Wollstonecraft tratan el tema de la educación. La primera de ellas, La educación de las hijas, es una guía de comportamiento, un texto que aconseja no solo acerca de asuntos morales como la benevolencia, sino también acerca de los relacionados con la etiqueta, como el vestir. Este tipo de escritos era extremadamente popular durante el siglo XVIII, en particular entre la clase media emergente, la cual veía en ellos la forma de desarrollar unas costumbres en la clase media que desafiaran el código de comportamiento
104 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
18 people are currently reading
421 people want to read
About the author
Mary Wollstonecraft
462 books969 followersMary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth century British writer, philosopher, and feminist. Among the general public and specifically among feminists, Wollstonecraft's life has received much more attention than her writing because of her unconventional, and often tumultuous, personal relationships. After two ill-fated affairs, with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay, Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement; they had one daughter, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft died at the age of thirty-eight due to complications from childbirth, leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts.
During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.
After Wollstonecraft's death, Godwin published a Memoir (1798) of her life, revealing her unorthodox lifestyle, which inadvertently destroyed her reputation for a century. However, with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the twentieth century, Wollstonecraft's advocacy of women's equality and critiques of conventional femininity became increasingly important. Today Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and work as important influences.
Information courtesy of Wikipedia.org
During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.
After Wollstonecraft's death, Godwin published a Memoir (1798) of her life, revealing her unorthodox lifestyle, which inadvertently destroyed her reputation for a century. However, with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the twentieth century, Wollstonecraft's advocacy of women's equality and critiques of conventional femininity became increasingly important. Today Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and work as important influences.
Information courtesy of Wikipedia.org
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 19, 2015
I was expecting this conduct manual by this enlightenment era feminist to be far more avant garde, both in terms of her goals for women in society and with respect to religion. Sadly, this was pretty typical of the time and genre (seeing as I did a thesis on family roles as laid out in published sermons of the period, I know whereof I speak). One thing that did surprise me was her condemnation of young women romanticising the melodrama found in novels and on-stage. She goes on about how terrible it is to portray women and men suicidal after a failed romance both for a lack of realism and because it sets a poor example (one should put their sights on eternal bliss and take misfortune of this kind as a fleeting pain). I'd just finished reading her Wikipedia article which describes her attempting suicide after the man she'd been madly in love with dumped her and continued to refuse her obsessive applications to resume the relationship. I conclude that she wrote this book when she was young and very naïve. But I'm very much looking forward to reading her more mature work on the rights of man and woman.
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February 7, 2016Wollstonecraft's first publication - a conventional sort of genre (instructional/conduct book), surprisingly, given Wollstonecraft's later radical productions, but perhaps it was a safe option for a woman seeking economic independence as a writer. Moreover, as a governess, and before that a school teacher, she was well situated to comment on the challenges of guiding young women to maturity in the 1780's. Personal experience too no doubt informed the insightful passages on roles that fate foisted on less fortunate females - especially the miserable ones of Companion and Governess. I daresay Wollstonecraft's biographers have mined the text for clues about her life.
I'm in no position to comment on this work's relationship to Wollstonecraft's famous VRN, not having read the latter, but I can say I found TED interesting for the glimpses it provided into domestic affairs and contemporary fashions (including beauty products referred to as "Olympian dew" and "the paint which enlivened Ninon's face"!). It also helps fill out the the context for some scenes/themes in novels of the period featuring young heroines (such as Burney's Evelina). Thinking here about Wollstonecraft's chapters on 'Public Places' and 'The Theatre'....
For all its conservative and at times repressive prescriptions, symptomatic of the times, there is an earnestness that comes up from the pages - an earnest desire to promote strong and resilient minds, albeit within the confines of traditional gender roles/restrictions.
For modern readers, the appeal will be to a limited audience - mainly those seeking to trace Wollstonecraft's development as a writer/to plot the evolution of her feminist thinking.
I'm in no position to comment on this work's relationship to Wollstonecraft's famous VRN, not having read the latter, but I can say I found TED interesting for the glimpses it provided into domestic affairs and contemporary fashions (including beauty products referred to as "Olympian dew" and "the paint which enlivened Ninon's face"!). It also helps fill out the the context for some scenes/themes in novels of the period featuring young heroines (such as Burney's Evelina). Thinking here about Wollstonecraft's chapters on 'Public Places' and 'The Theatre'....
For all its conservative and at times repressive prescriptions, symptomatic of the times, there is an earnestness that comes up from the pages - an earnest desire to promote strong and resilient minds, albeit within the confines of traditional gender roles/restrictions.
For modern readers, the appeal will be to a limited audience - mainly those seeking to trace Wollstonecraft's development as a writer/to plot the evolution of her feminist thinking.
September 30, 2025
I get her .
Read
December 17, 2020*No rating, read for college
Read
January 28, 2016Wollstonecraft's first publication - a conventional sort of genre (instructional/conduct book), which comes as a surprise, considering Wollstonecraft's later radical productions, but perhaps it was a safe option for a woman seeking economic independence as a writer. Moreover, as a governess, and before that a school teacher, she was well situated to comment on the challenges of guiding young women to maturity in the 1780's. Personal experience too, no doubt, informed the insightful passages on roles that fate foisted on less fortunate females - especially the miserable roles of Companion and Governess. No doubt Wollstonecraft's biographers have mined the text for clues about her life....
I'm in no position to comment on this text's relationship to Wollstonecraft's famous VRW, not having read the latter, but I can say that I found TED interesting for the glimpses it provided into domestic affairs and contemporary fashions (including beauty products referred to as "Olympian dew" and "the paint which enlivened Ninon's face"!). It also helped fill out the context for some scenes/themes in novels of the period featuring young heroines (such as Burney's Evelina). Thinking here in particular about Wollstonecraft's chapters on 'Public Places' and 'The Theatre'....
For all its conservative and at times repressive prescriptions, symptomatic of the times, there is an earnestness that comes up from the pages - an earnest desire to promote strong and healthy minds, albeit within the confines of traditional gender roles/restrictions.
In the 21st cemtury, the appeal of TED will be limited - mainly to those seeking to trace Wollstonecraft's development as a writer and thinker.
I'm in no position to comment on this text's relationship to Wollstonecraft's famous VRW, not having read the latter, but I can say that I found TED interesting for the glimpses it provided into domestic affairs and contemporary fashions (including beauty products referred to as "Olympian dew" and "the paint which enlivened Ninon's face"!). It also helped fill out the context for some scenes/themes in novels of the period featuring young heroines (such as Burney's Evelina). Thinking here in particular about Wollstonecraft's chapters on 'Public Places' and 'The Theatre'....
For all its conservative and at times repressive prescriptions, symptomatic of the times, there is an earnestness that comes up from the pages - an earnest desire to promote strong and healthy minds, albeit within the confines of traditional gender roles/restrictions.
In the 21st cemtury, the appeal of TED will be limited - mainly to those seeking to trace Wollstonecraft's development as a writer and thinker.
Read
June 11, 2023Reading the book I expected something way more progressive. But it is only me to blame for the wrong expectations.
I am currently reading Godwin’s memoirs of her life, and it asserts “The prejudices of her early years suffered a vehement concussion. Her respect for the establishment was undermined” as a result of the French Revolution.
If anything, this, her first publication, is proof of the concept of change and self-growth we all experience at different times of our lives. Is it not admirable to be able to reassess your core-beliefs and change into a more compassionate and kinder view of the world and the human experience? After all we all have our biases, and it is working through them that we grow :)
I am currently reading Godwin’s memoirs of her life, and it asserts “The prejudices of her early years suffered a vehement concussion. Her respect for the establishment was undermined” as a result of the French Revolution.
If anything, this, her first publication, is proof of the concept of change and self-growth we all experience at different times of our lives. Is it not admirable to be able to reassess your core-beliefs and change into a more compassionate and kinder view of the world and the human experience? After all we all have our biases, and it is working through them that we grow :)
March 27, 2016
Rather scary in a way, but also a really good glimpse into the mindset of the time.
December 1, 2023
Bueno, esperaba algo más revolucionario, la verdad. Se ve que con los años fue cambiando la perspectiva.
Me resultó más interesante "La mujer del porvenir" de Concepción Arenal, aunque también hay que reconocer los casi 100 años que separan ambas obras.
De todas maneras, me parece que mujeres tan admirables como estas deberían ser más reconocidas y ostentar el puesto revelante en la historia que en verdad les corresponde.
Me resultó más interesante "La mujer del porvenir" de Concepción Arenal, aunque también hay que reconocer los casi 100 años que separan ambas obras.
De todas maneras, me parece que mujeres tan admirables como estas deberían ser más reconocidas y ostentar el puesto revelante en la historia que en verdad les corresponde.
November 27, 2024
Por donde empezar. Amé cada página, amo a Mary Wollstonecraft y a Mary Shelly y disfruté mucho leyendo este libro, al igual que con Frankenstein. Amé y muy buen inicio de su carrera como autora. Maravillosa escritora.
December 21, 2024
guay siempre y cuando no seas un criado
October 16, 2025
conduct book is always a snooze. low key kinda classist which feels strange for someone who hated property and aristocrats so much. she figured it by maria.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews