Mary Wollstonecraft’s Original Stories, From Real Life; with Conversations, Calculated to Regulate the Affections, and Form the Mind to Truth and Goodness was published by Joseph Johnson in 1788. Writing specifically for children, Wollstonecraft uses a framing narrative to present a series of conversations between a governess and her two female charges in 25 short chapters. The governess, Mrs. Mason, directs their conversations about everyday events and encounters or various interpolated tales to first correct the vulgar prejudices and shallow learning of the girls and then to teach them how to lead virtuous and useful lives. Through these conversations, the girls learn the importance of self-regulation and the importance of responding rationally rather than emotionally to the challenges life places in their path. The work illustrates the potential of middle-class values to reform individuals, and through them society, as every conversation or incident offers potential for self-reflection and personal growth and guides them (and the reader) to become virtuous, responsible members of their social worlds.