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A review by alexsiddall
Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft
4.0
Wollstonecraft's thinking was so far ahead of her time in many ways. this is fascinating on several levels. She gives a view of Scandinavia during the late 18th century, commenting on housing, transport, diet, childraising, social mores, industry, and many other things. She's very interesting on ethics in business and government, on social class and hypocrisy, and on education. Her ideas on social equality, crime and punishment, and population are decades ahead of her time, and in many ways ahead of much thinking even today.
I wonder if Patrick O'Brian read this - I think not. She mentions how Danish traders took advantage of neutrality by getting their unsaleable goods shipped and captured by the Royal Navy, so they could claim the cargo value back from the British government. This surely would have come up in one of the Aubrey-Maturin books if it had been known to O'Brian (or have I missed it?)!
I wonder if Patrick O'Brian read this - I think not. She mentions how Danish traders took advantage of neutrality by getting their unsaleable goods shipped and captured by the Royal Navy, so they could claim the cargo value back from the British government. This surely would have come up in one of the Aubrey-Maturin books if it had been known to O'Brian (or have I missed it?)!