Betwixt and Between : The Biographies of Mary Wollstonecraft

‘Betwixt and Between the Biographies of Mary Wollstonecraft’ identifies the biases, contradictions, errors, ambiguities and gaps that have run rampant in biographies on Wollstonecraft, many of them incomprehensively left unchecked and perpetuated from publication to publication. It also analyzes how these flaws have subsequently and significantly distorted scholars’ understanding of Wollstonecraft and her works.

Betwixt and Between identifies the biases, errors and ambiguities that have run rampant in the biographies on Mary Wollstonecraft, many of them left unchecked and perpetuated from publication to publication. Brenda Ayres investigates the agenda, problems and strengths of eighteen critical biographies, beginning with William Godwin’s Memoirs (1798), ending with Charlotte Gordon’s Romantic Outlaws (2015) and including ten lesser-known biographies. Betwixt and Between synthesizes the biographies, exposes gaps and contradictions, and attempts to fill and reconcile them, supplying in the process considerable information on Wollstonecraft that has never before been published.