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Aeneas Press edition 18th Century First published 1798

Maria

Or, The Wrongs of Woman

by Mary Wollstonecraft 1759–1797

The book, and the century it came out of.

Maria wakes in a private madhouse where her husband has confined her, with her child taken and no law on her side. Wollstonecraft was writing it when she died in childbirth at thirty-eight, and it stops mid-sentence with the endings sketched in notes; her widower published the fragment, ruining her reputation for a century by telling the truth about her life. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Derby, Goya and Robert among them.

The public are here presented with the last literary attempt of an author, whose fame has been uncommonly extensive, and whose talents have probably been most admired, by the persons by whom talents are estimated with the greatest accuracy and discrimination.
The first sentence of Maria
A note on this edition

Maria, by Mary Wollstonecraft, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 136 pages
Reading time
about 3 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501012028
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Yard with Lunatics, Francisco Goya
Yard with Lunatics Francisco Goya 1794
The Dead Mouse, Louis-Léopold Boilly
The Dead Mouse Louis-Léopold Boilly 1795
Arkwright’s Mills, Joseph Wright of Derby
Arkwright’s Mills Joseph Wright of Derby 1795
A Lake by Moonlight, Joseph Wright of Derby
A Lake by Moonlight Joseph Wright of Derby 1780
Rydal Waterfall, Cumbria, Joseph Wright of Derby
Rydal Waterfall, Cumbria Joseph Wright of Derby 1795
River Landscape, John Hoppner
River Landscape John Hoppner 1794
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Maria as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Maria as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Maria, first published 1798, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501012028, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Maria?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Mary Wollstonecraft's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 136 pages, which is roughly about 3 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
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Maria
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