Mary: A Fiction

Mary: A Fiction is a novel published in 1788 after Mary had spent a year as a governess to an Irish family and officially decided to become an author by trade. Much of this novel stems from her own life as the main character, Mary (subsequently named after her), lost her best friend as well, among other things. Wollstonecraft not only made strides with this story by making the main character a woman confident in her sexuality, but also she was able to critique the current time's view on women and marriage, as the character Mary was labeled a genius.