supporter of the early impetus of the French Revolution, journeyed to Paris in 1794 to experience it first hand. However, by the time she arrived there “The Terror” had begun, making the city dangerous to Wollstonecraft and other British citizens. Not only was this very disillusioning, but it was the start of a devastating on-again-off-again relationship with Gilbert Imlay, an American writer, explorer, entrepreneur and philanderer. She bore Imlay a daughter, Fanny, out of wedlock and her tumultuous relationship with him twice prompted her to attempt suicide. (answers.com)

Three months after her second thwarted suicide attempt, Wollstonecraft became reacquainted and fell in love with William Godwin, whom she had first met in 1791. Both Wollstonecraft and Godwin found marriage abhorrent, but in 1797, when Wollstonecraft discovered she was pregnant, they decided to get married for the protection of their child. Sadly, the arrival of this child precipitated Wollstonecraft’s death only a month later. She died of blood poisoning caused by complications in the delivery of their daughter, Mary (later to become the author of Frankenstein and wife of the poet Shelley). A year after her death, Godwin published a biography of Wollstonecraft which revealed details of her relationship with Imlay and the existence of their illegitimate child, as well as disclosing other relationships and private details of Wollstonecraft’s life. These unfortunately portrayed her as licentious in the eyes of her contemporaries, and as a woman ruled by her passions in spite of her aspirations to Reason in the eyes of later generations. (answers.com)

One of the great ironies of Wollstonecraft’s legacy is that her Vindication of the Rights of Women became associated with the flouting of social conventions, primarily in relation to marriage. Though she did not agree with marriage as it was practiced by her contemporaries, she was nonetheless a proponent of marriage if it was a marriage of equals, and much of her work expounded on ways in which men and women could make their