So this was awesome! Not just because most of my context for Wollstonecraft before this book was as Mary Shelley's mother and the author of "A Vindication of the Rights of Women," but because Wollstonecraft was kind of amazing! Despite knowing what I know about the 18th and 19th centuries, I do sometimes forget how much a determined woman can do and the difference between things that are impossible and things that just aren't easy.
Gordon is a very sympathetic biographer and sees herself as engaged in the project of rehabilitating Wollstonecraft (even though my experience is that we've gotten over most of the pernicious slander around her) and does an admirable job. Her life reads like a kind of fictional adventure and Gordon uses her letters to give us the kind of accessibility to her heart and mind that feels almost fictional without breaking the (illusion of) history.
It was a great read and, holy cow, Wollstonecraft was AWESOME!