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 incomprehensibly left unchecked and perpetuated from publication to publication. It also analyses how these flaws have subsequently and significantly distorted scholars’ understanding of Wollstonecraft and her works.

‘This book offers a fascinating perspective on more than two centuries of Wollstonecraft biography. Ayres writes with a scholarly eye, tracing the different versions of Wollstonecraft that have emerged over the years and interrogates the evidence on which they are based.’ - Jane Hodson, Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Sheffield, UK

‘Betwixt and Between is a bracing critical survey of how frequently biographers distort or even discount facts when depicting the life of Mary Wollstonecraft. In its desire to set the record straight, this book adds to our knowledge of Wollstonecraft’s complicated life, and charts her changing significance over the course of two centuries to scholars whose deep investments in her life tell a history of its own.’ - Julie A. Carlson, Professor of English, University of California, Santa Barbara, US