Most scholars agree that Godwin's biography of Wollstonecraft is biased and unreliable.

In 1981 Mitzi Myers notes this and also observes that, even after two centuries, his biography “remains the substratum on which even the newest lives erect their varying portrayals” of Wollstonecraft (“Godwin's” 299). It continues to be so; Memoirs is quoted more than any other source for information about Wollstonecraft as if it is the definitive biography. Since Godwin was Wollstonecraft's husband, the assumption is that he knew her better than anyone else, but the truth is the time that Godwin spent with Wollstonecraft was very short and sporadic. Furthermore, as Myers argues, the biography is more an autobiography by Godwin than a biography of his wife (310, 313).

Godwin joined Joseph Johnson's coterie on November 13, 1791, having received an invitation to a dinner party to honor Thomas Paine. From all accounts, he and Wollstonecraft struck an instant dislike for each other. They might have seen each other on a few additional occasions at Johnson's table, but they were barely acquaintances before Wollstonecraft left for Paris and fell in love with Gilbert Imlay. Wollstonecraft does not mention Godwin in any of her extant letters prior to their sexual relationship. After Wollstonecraft returned to London with Fanny, Mary Hays schemed to get her two friends together and finally convinced both Godwin and Wollstonecraft to come to her home for tea on January 8, 1796. That setting proved to be more successful than earlier meetings. By February 13, Godwin was romantically interested in Wollstonecraft as he called upon Rebecca Christie in the hopes of finding Wollstonecraft there, but she was out of town visiting a friend (L. Gordon 291). After taking new lodgings close to him in Somers Town, now known as King's Cross, Wollstonecraft called on him at his home on April 14 (293). That a single woman alone would visit a single man at his home, who was also alone, was a brazen act. Was it her experience with the French Revolution “that made it seem a matter of no importance whether she put on her cloak and went to visit Godwin in Somers Town, or waited in Judd Street West for Godwin to come to her?” Woolf wonders (198).