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Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft
maalinmariaa's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
vpaparic's review against another edition
medium-paced
2.0
Beautiful descriptions of landscape but Wollstonecraft is so judgemental and British-centred we barely get to know anythimg about the actual places she visited. She finds everything disgusting and everyone lazy and "unable to speak English" (???). When she sees a woman she mainly tells you whether she is pretty or not, fat or thin, and whether she seems "chaste". Meanwhile she is also always complaining that most women are so superficial but not her.
ipanzica's review against another edition
4.0
This is a fascinating collection of letters written about our female author's experiences in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark at the time. While the letters were short they were all interesting to read in order to hear more of the author's commentary about each country's culture and her comparisons of these cultures. Usually, we only see men write about culture and travel from this point in history so it is also refreshing to see the woman's perspective on the topic. Though her opinion is more favorable towards Sweden than Norway, so just be prepared for that if you would get annoyed by this.
Also, she was really nice even while she was bringing up the negative parts of a culture. For example while talking about the Norwegian people she wrote "The Norwegians appear to be a sensible, shrewd people, with little scientific knowledge, and still less taste for literature; but they are arriving at the epoch which precedes the introduction of the arts and sciences." This is the most optimistic and kind negative critic I ever heard in a book exploring different cultures written during this time. At least two of her male counterpoints (Roy Chapman Andrews and D. H. Lawrence) at the time were straight-up insulting and making death threats about the people they met in their books. So while the bar was low for her she still did a great job and earned every star I gave her.
Overall it was an interesting book to read and I recommend it to people who want to feel like they are traveling and learn new things while reading.
Also, she was really nice even while she was bringing up the negative parts of a culture. For example while talking about the Norwegian people she wrote "The Norwegians appear to be a sensible, shrewd people, with little scientific knowledge, and still less taste for literature; but they are arriving at the epoch which precedes the introduction of the arts and sciences." This is the most optimistic and kind negative critic I ever heard in a book exploring different cultures written during this time. At least two of her male counterpoints (Roy Chapman Andrews and D. H. Lawrence) at the time were straight-up insulting and making death threats about the people they met in their books. So while the bar was low for her she still did a great job and earned every star I gave her.
Overall it was an interesting book to read and I recommend it to people who want to feel like they are traveling and learn new things while reading.
dee9401's review against another edition
1.0
I really wanted to like Mary Shelley's mother's historical travel letters from Scandinavia, but I just couldn't. I finished it due to reader's guilt, pushing through on the Tube, while walking and before bed. To be honest, she read like the typical American tourist of today: arrogant, self-important and unwilling to look at others through any lens but one's own conceit.
To be fair though,, Mary Wollstonecraft had some amazing zingers and some good commentary of the problems of lust for property, social convention and justice. She also throws a harsh light on some of our cultural practices. On hospitality: "a fondness for social pleasures in which the mind not having its proportion of exercise, the bottle must be pushed about." On justice: "a man may strike a man with impunity because he pays him wages, though these wages are so low that necessity must teach them to pilfer." On thinking for oneself: "What, for example, has piety, under the heathen or Christian system, been, but a blind faith in things contrary to the principles of reason."
And finally, did Wollstonecraft write the best diss of a person, when she said of a horsesman: "Nothing, indeed, can equal the stupid obstinacy of some of these half-alive beings, who seem to have been made by Prometheus when the fire he stole from Heaven was so exhausted that he could only spare a spark to give life, not animation, to the inert clay."
Maybe I could give this book 1.5 stars...
To be fair though,, Mary Wollstonecraft had some amazing zingers and some good commentary of the problems of lust for property, social convention and justice. She also throws a harsh light on some of our cultural practices. On hospitality: "a fondness for social pleasures in which the mind not having its proportion of exercise, the bottle must be pushed about." On justice: "a man may strike a man with impunity because he pays him wages, though these wages are so low that necessity must teach them to pilfer." On thinking for oneself: "What, for example, has piety, under the heathen or Christian system, been, but a blind faith in things contrary to the principles of reason."
And finally, did Wollstonecraft write the best diss of a person, when she said of a horsesman: "Nothing, indeed, can equal the stupid obstinacy of some of these half-alive beings, who seem to have been made by Prometheus when the fire he stole from Heaven was so exhausted that he could only spare a spark to give life, not animation, to the inert clay."
Maybe I could give this book 1.5 stars...
goodverbsonly's review against another edition
3.0
Read for Frankenstein's Forbearers!!!
Long and dramatic descriptions of scenery and the people from the North.
In the back are the personal letters she was writing at the time to The Worst Man Ever and I read two of them and I got very sad. Very sad.
Long and dramatic descriptions of scenery and the people from the North.
In the back are the personal letters she was writing at the time to The Worst Man Ever and I read two of them and I got very sad. Very sad.
leilasj's review against another edition
4.0
anne boyer once tweeted that 'there are entire genres women write that do not yet have names'. this book is part of this tradition: a best-selling travel journal that is also romantic self-portrait, an intimate work of creative non-fiction that explores the author's emotional development, and that hides the actual intent of her journey through the nordic countries (she was doing business for her lover imlay). wollstonecraft was the original enlightenment woman. in godwin's words, 'if there ever were a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book'.
cheriebooksreadthisyear's review against another edition
I read the first five letters in 'A Short Residence in Sweden' and then the whole of 'Memoirs...'
seatea's review against another edition
3.0
i can't decide if i like this woman. understand her? yeah. feel for her? yeah. but like her? .....