'Mary': the adventure of an independent woman

Let me start by saying that the Cal Carré publishing house is grateful for its willingness to revive the English writer Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), a fighter for women's rights, a literary genius of the highest level and mother of Mary Shelley, whom she endowed with similar talent. Two years ago, it published her novel Maria or the world against women, where she denounced the oppression that women experienced, embodied in one who dared to flee from her husband and was locked up with a lock and key. Now she has translated Mary. A fiction, where another woman runs away, but there is no one to stop her because she is strong in rebellion.

In 18th century England, Mary is still very tender when she is forced to marry a boy she does not even know and who, fortunately, decides to spend a long time abroad without her. Either he forgets that he is married or, like his wife, marriage is too much for him. Mary takes advantage of the opportunity to wander around and moves to Lisbon with her beloved friend Ann, who is ill and will not last long. There she meets Henry, with whom in other circumstances she might have fallen in love, because he has many of the things that she likes in a human being. But "that man was not meant for her."

The back cover tells us that Mary is a heroine in the style of Jane Eyre and it is true, because Jane Eyre was unstoppable and she was willing to suffer anything to preserve her independence. This is how Mary, when Lisbon sees that she only has about eighty pounds left, exclaims that she will work, at a time when women of good family never worked: "I will do whatever is necessary rather than live as a slave." No, she was not born to bend to an owner, far from it.

A protagonist made from her shortcomings

From this novel, which is not Flaubert's work but is very readable - apart from portraying the female condition in its subjection - I want to highlight two ingredients. On the one hand, we see how the protagonist is built from her shortcomings, which is often how women have been encouraged in the face of adverse realities: "Neglected in all aspects and abandoned to her intimate musings, she inspected and weighed everything within her reach and thus learned to think." In fact, as happened to Madame Bovary, Mary also takes a liking to reading romantic novels. Fortunately, her chastity prevents her from succumbing to saccharine stories. Otherwise, the novel would have gone in another direction.

And, on the other hand, I would like to highlight the sisterly relationship that the two girls establish: "Ann's misfortunes and ill health made Mary establish very close ties; she so wanted to have a house to take them in that her longing drove them away. Friendship and compassion dictated, she could not wait to make her aspiration a reality." It has also often been that women have enjoyed the help of other women to alleviate their destinies dictated by the patriarchy. Wollstonecraft knew this well, who maintained close female friendships, among which Fanny Blood stands out, with whom she traveled to Lisbon precisely when the latter was suffering from a bad pregnancy. The figure of Ann is clearly inspired by her.