Her Own Woman, by Diane Jacobs

This action-packed life of Mary Wollstonecraft gives us the ironic facts, but fails to convey her potent intelligence. A self-taught writer, her Vindication of the Rights of Women brought her success at the age of 32. Moving to Paris, she survived the Terror, but fell for an American bad hat called Imlay who deserted her after she had given birth to their child. Following two suicide attempts, she found contentment with the radical Godwin, only to die in childbirth at 38. Her daughter by Godwin wrote Frankenstein. Her daughter by Imlay killed herself at the age of 22.