Coming Soon ...
Solitary Walker:
A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft
A debut novel by N.J Mastro
February 20, 2025
Back cover ...
England, 1787.
At 28, Mary Wollstonecraft is an avowed spinster. She also has notions about how to educate girls. Society should teach them to think and to reason. When fired as a governess, she moves to London to live independently by her pen. In time, Mary publishes A Vindication for the Rights of Woman, making hers a groundbreaking voice for her sex.
But a humiliating faux pas threatens her reputation, sending her to Paris to write about the French Revolution, where she meets American adventurer Gilbert Imlay. Her long-held views regarding intimacy fall to the wayside, and Mary finds herself in love for the first time in her life. When France declares war on Great Britain, however, Paris is no longer safe. Mary’s writing has branded her a revolutionary. As the Reign of Terror begins, she must decide whether to leave Paris—and Imlay—or face the prospect of a trip to the guillotine. Her choice alters her life forever.
Readers of biographical fiction will embrace this carefully researched novel about the woman historians widely consider the world’s first feminist. Told against the backdrop of Wollstonecraft’s incredible writing life in London, Paris, and the lonely shores of Scandinavia, Solitary Walker is the timeless story of women forging their own path.
Who was Mary Wollstonecraft?
"I am then to be the first of a new genus - I tremble at the attempt yet if I fail - I only suffer ..."
So wrote Mary Wollstonecraft in 1787. Today, many historians consider her the world's first feminist, not because she was the first woman to speak in favor of women's equality, but because her writing was the first to gain international attention.Wollstonecraft spoke out against the disparities in how boys and girls were educated. She also challenged the way women were denied the same economic opportunities men enjoyed.
At the time, Wollstonecraft was both admired and scorned for her audacity. Yet her words live on well after her death as she inspired women's movements around the globe in the 19th and 20th centuries, demonstrating the impact of a single person's actions. Wollstonecraft remains a relevant figure in the 21st century as women continue to look to her as a role model for equity, as evidenced by this statue erected in her honor as recently as 2020.