The Love Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft to Gilbert Imlay

These letters record one of the rawest love affairs in English literary history. Written between 1793 and 1795, they trace Mary Wollstonecraft’s relationship with the American merchant Gilbert Imlay, from the first flush of desire through pregnancy, the birth of their daughter Fanny, and Imlay’s slow withdrawal. Wollstonecraft, already famous for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, writes with startling candor about longing, jealousy, motherhood, and despair, and the correspondence shadows the depression that drove her to attempt suicide. William Godwin published them after her death, and they survive as a stark record of a fiercely independent mind undone by an unequal love. Free to download here as a PDF and EPUB edition.