Tuesday 1st November 2022

Venue: Online

Be a part of our first Chawton House Audiobook

As part of our campaign to raise money to purchase a first edition of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Posthumous Works, in November, we’ll be working to compile an audiobook of Mary Wollstonecraft’s unfinished novel Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman.

Wollstonecraft’s radical and troubling novel explores the oppression faced by women across the spectrum of social class. It opens in a private asylum, where the heroine, Maria, has been imprisoned by her libertine husband George Venables. Whilst incarcerated, Maria befriends her attendant, Jemima, who shares her tragic history. Maria also begins to fall in love with another inmate, Henry Darnford and the pair bond over a shared love of reading. At the same time, Maria narrates her own tragic story for her infant daughter, who has been taken by her husband. These three intertwined tales build towards an ending that Wollstonecraft was unable to draft in full, her life cut short by the birth of her second daughter, Mary.

We want your help to bring this remarkable story to life. We have 30 recording slots available to purchase from today until 30 October.

Available Slots:

  • 1 x Wollstonecraft Star Slot: The whole first chapter + new Mary Wollstonecraft pendant specially designed by Tatty Devine

£100

*SOLD OUT*

  • 2 x Bookend Star Slots: The Prefaces and the Conclusion

£25

*SOLD OUT*

  • 24 x Standard Slots (10-15 minutes)

£15

  • 3 x Student slots (7-10 minutes) *For full-time students or under 21s only*

£5

*1 LEFT!*

Actors, take note! You can record alone or with friends, on camera or voice only. You can be as creative as you like with your recording – costume and/or video editing is warmly welcomed.

On 1 November, readers will receive their allocated section of text and detailed instructions for recording.* Record your section with or without video and send it in to us by 15 November to be included in our production of Maria, which will premier on YouTube at the end of the fundraiser (1 December).

*Readers will need access to a PC or laptop running Windows or Apple, and internet access.