Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had brought revolution to America and France, Mary Wollstonecraft produced her own declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate and forthright, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman attacked the prevailing view of docile, decorative femininity, and instead laid out the principles of emancipation: an equal education for girls and boys, an end to prejudice, and for women to become defined by their profession, not their partner. Mary Wollstonecraft’s work was received with a mixture of admiration and outrage – Walpole called her ‘a hyena in petticoats’ – yet it established her as the mother of modern feminism.

Heimskringla (Sagas of the Norse Kings), part 2. Hardcover. 1975 printing of 1961 revised edition. 461 pp. Translated by Samuel Laing from original Icelandic. Revision with introduction and notes by Peter Foote. Author: Snorri Sturluson. Born in Iceland, 1178. Law-Speaker of General Assembly, 1215-18l 1222-31. In Norway, 1218-20, 1237-39. Accused of treason by the Norwegian king and murdered by a political enemy in 1241.