then tells his, and the reader at once recognizes in him another Imlay. Finally, by a lucky accident, the two prisoners make their escape, and Jemima accompanies them. The latter part of the story consists of sketches and the barest outlines; but these indicate the succession of its events and its conclusion. Maria and Darnford live together as husband and wife in London. The former believes that she is right in so doing, and cares nothing for the condemnation of society. She endures neglect and contumely because she is supported by confidence in the rectitude of her conduct. Her husband now has her lover tried for adultery and seduction, and in his absence Maria undertakes his defence. Her separation from her husband is the consequence, but her fortune is thrown into chancery. She refuses to leave Darnford, but he, after a few years, during which she has borne him two children, proves unfaithful. In her despair she attempts to commit suicide, but fails. When consciousness and reason return, she resolves to live for her child.
Maria is a story with a purpose. Its aim is the reformation of the evils which result from the established relations of the sexes. Certain rights are to be vindicated by a full exposition of the wrongs which their absence causes. Mary wished, as her Preface set forth, to exhibit the misery and oppression peculiar to women, that arise out of the partial laws and customs of society. Maria, in fact, was to be a forcible proof of the necessity of those social changes which she had urged in the Vindication of the Rights of Women. In the career of the heroine the wrongs women suffer from matrimonial despotism and cruelty are demonstrated; while that of Jemima shows how
