"So far as it has been published, and it has now reached its ninth
volume, the Famous Women Series is rather better on the whole than the
English Men of Letters Series. One had but to recall the names and
characteristics of some of the women with whom it deals,--literary
women, like Maria Edgeworth, Margaret Fuller, Mary Lamb, Emily Bronte,
George Eliot, and George Sand; women of the world (not to mention the
other parties in that well-known Scriptural firm), like the naughty
but fascinating Countess of Albany; and women of philanthropy, of
which the only example given here so far is Mrs. Elizabeth Fry,--one
has but to compare the intellectual qualities of the majority of
English men of letters to perceive that the former are the most
difficult to handle, and that a series of which they are the heroines
is, if successful, a remarkable collection of biographies. We thought
so as we read Miss Blind's study of George Sand, and Vernon Lee's
study of the Countess of Albany, and we think so now that we have read
Mrs. Elizabeth Robins Pennell's study of Mary Wollstonecraft, who,
with all her faults, was an honor to her sex. She was not so
considered while she lived, except by those who knew her well, nor for
years after her death; but she is so considered now, even by the
granddaughters of the good ladies who so bitterly condemned her when
the century was new. She was notable for the sacrifices that she made
for her worthless father and her weak, inefficient sisters, for her
dogged persistence and untiring industry, and for her independence and
her courage. The soul of goodness was in her, though she would be
herself and go on her own way; and if she loved not wisely, according
to the world's creed, she loved too well for her own happiness, and
paid the penalty of suffering. What she might have been if she had not
met Capt. Gilbert Imlay, who was a scoundrel, and William Godwin, who
was a philosopher, can only be conjectured. She was a force in
literature and in the enfranchisement of her sisterhood, and as such
was worthy of the remembrance which she will long retain through Mrs.
Pennell's able memoir."--_R. H. Stoddard, in the Mail and Express._
_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price by
the publishers_,
ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON
HARRIET MARTINEAU.
BY MRS. F. FENWICK MILLER.
16mo. Cloth. Price $1.00.