The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy, 1902-1908, Vol. 3 Book

The expectation (I have too fondly nourished it) of regaining your affection, every day grows fainter and fainter…

What an extremely tiresome obsession and example of pleading for something that does not exist nor ever will. Mary Wollstonecraft just could not let Gilbert Imlay go. Her incessant attempts to reason with him, to make of something that was never there, only in her own fantastical mind. The fact she did bear a child with Imlay was in no way hinged at keeping him home, devoted to her and the child, in fidelity, and honorable. For some reason she just could not believe Imlay did not love her and she knew he would one day be remiss in his failure to remain faithful as her husband. She continually threatened to never write him again but returned time and time again with more letters filled with her lovelorn pleadings. It quickly, and then irritatingly, became sadly despicable behavior on her part, especially because of claims branding Wollstonecraft a pioneer to the feminist movement. This collection of letters is an important and painful reminder that continuing the same outworn and repetitious behavior while expecting different results is in fact, and utterly, insane.