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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
The first thing I need to say about this book is that Jill Lepore's research skills and attention to detail are truly remarkable. The smallest details are meticulously checked and verified. I'm someone who really loves to read the source notes at the end of non-fiction books, and the notes at the end of The Secret History of Wonder Woman are almost as fascinating as the main text of the book itself.
And the main text is indeed fascinating! It's hard to discuss much of it without spoiling the fun of discovering it as you read. Suffice it to say that William Moulton Marston, Elizabeth Sadie Holloway, and Olive Byrne are every bit as engaging (and in many ways more so) than any of the characters that appeared in the pages of Wonder Woman comics. Highly recommended!
And the main text is indeed fascinating! It's hard to discuss much of it without spoiling the fun of discovering it as you read. Suffice it to say that William Moulton Marston, Elizabeth Sadie Holloway, and Olive Byrne are every bit as engaging (and in many ways more so) than any of the characters that appeared in the pages of Wonder Woman comics. Highly recommended!
Such an interesting book! Lepore puts so much detail in that occasionally it can be difficult to keep focus, but this book taught me so much not only about Wonder Woman, but about the Suffragist movement of the early and mid-nineteenth century. It was amazing to see how those ideologies were woven into the comics, combined with Marston's own odd version of feminism. A great read.
A fun read on the history of the creator of Wonder Woman, the women who influenced him, and the feminist movement surrounding them. I wasn't a huge fan of the comic character; in fact, I'm not really a comics guy. But after seeing Batman vs. Superman, I wanted to learn more about WW, especially since she's about to get her own feature film. Lepore's work gave me great insight into the creation of the character and everything surrounding her. She questions in the afterword how fair she was to Marston; personally, I think she was more than fair. The guy was weird and for being a feminist, he certainly had a way of projecting his urges onto WW. This is a readable book even if you don't have a deep interest in the subject.
Fascinating bit of cultural history that covers everything from gun rights to women's rights, censorship, and the role of superhero narratives. Great read.
informative
slow-paced
I was going to give this 2 stars because it was definitely not what I was expecting. This was a history of the man who created Wonder Woman, his unconventional life, the suffragettes movement, and feminism. I gave it 3 stars because, while it wasn’t what I wanted to read, I was still pretty interested in the history.
So much more than a biography of William Moulton Marston, but also a book about the women's vote, the birth control and gender equality in the USA.
A fascinating biography, very well researched and illustrated.
A fascinating biography, very well researched and illustrated.
informative
slow-paced
This book has clearly been researched to within an inch of its life, and it's paid off. Not only is it informative, it's also readable, which is something that not all investigative, historical nonfiction is. I'm forced to say that it's a little slow, and often seems more interested in the family life of Wonder Woman's creator than the comic itself - I would have liked to see more analysis of the early comic texts - but I wonder if that's a fair criticism. In my defense, the title of the book led me to expect a narrower focus, but in Lepore's defense the historical context of any creation is crucial to that creation, and by fully situating Wonder Woman in the culture and scholarship of its creator it becomes far easier to understand the development of the comic itself.
That creator, William Moulton Marston, is a fascinating character who comes across as something of a charlatan. It's clear that he's bright and well-educated, but he seems to be a bit dodgy in his scholarship, and a little too ready to take credit for the work of others... including the two women he has formed a polyamorous relationship with. One can give credit for his monomania regarding his own academic work without actually being convinced by that work, but admittedly that particular subjectivity had clearly left him with enormous blind spots regarding his pet theories of emotions and lie detection. His primary romantic partners - his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston, and their live-in lover Olive Byrne - are equally interesting, even if I'm sometimes left wondering what they see in him, as in many ways they are both plainly more competent. Perhaps it's charisma? Anyway, their secret relationship, which is primarily the "secret history" of the title, plays out against a backdrop of feminist activism in the first half of the twentieth century, and it's all tied together convincingly. The tracing of bondage in early feminist imagery, to its famous place in the comic, was particularly well done I thought, and certainly enlightening.
That creator, William Moulton Marston, is a fascinating character who comes across as something of a charlatan. It's clear that he's bright and well-educated, but he seems to be a bit dodgy in his scholarship, and a little too ready to take credit for the work of others... including the two women he has formed a polyamorous relationship with. One can give credit for his monomania regarding his own academic work without actually being convinced by that work, but admittedly that particular subjectivity had clearly left him with enormous blind spots regarding his pet theories of emotions and lie detection. His primary romantic partners - his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston, and their live-in lover Olive Byrne - are equally interesting, even if I'm sometimes left wondering what they see in him, as in many ways they are both plainly more competent. Perhaps it's charisma? Anyway, their secret relationship, which is primarily the "secret history" of the title, plays out against a backdrop of feminist activism in the first half of the twentieth century, and it's all tied together convincingly. The tracing of bondage in early feminist imagery, to its famous place in the comic, was particularly well done I thought, and certainly enlightening.
Overall, this is a well-researched book on the history of the creator of Wonder Woman, his crazy-ass family and the very deep feminist theory that undergirds most of the early comics.
The only knock on the book is that it is by no means a complete history of Wonder Woman. It might better have been titled, "The Secret History of Wonder Woman's Creation," or, most accurately, "Wonder Woman and Feminism: The Early Years."
You'll learn about William Marston, the inventor of an early version of the lie-detector test/failed psychologist/failed moviemaker/failed entrepreneur who used his lifelong obsession with women to craft the early tales of the Amazonian Wonder Woman. You'll learn about his wife. And his other wife. And his other other kind-of wife.
You'll be confused by what scholarship/writing should be attributed to whom between the primary threesome. You'll be bewildered by the lengths of the deception that the unofficial wife went to keep Marston's progenitorship a secret from her children. And you'll be slightly weirded out by how closely Margaret Sanger weaves in to all of it.
The book focuses heavily on the early comics (up until Marston's death), then sort of writes off the entire 50+ other years with a "the people who came directly after Marston were chauvinist pigs" which, while not inaccurate, is not exactly meeting the mantle of "history."
That being said, this book is essential for truly understanding Wonder Woman, her origins and her standing/place in the culture at large.
The only knock on the book is that it is by no means a complete history of Wonder Woman. It might better have been titled, "The Secret History of Wonder Woman's Creation," or, most accurately, "Wonder Woman and Feminism: The Early Years."
You'll learn about William Marston, the inventor of an early version of the lie-detector test/failed psychologist/failed moviemaker/failed entrepreneur who used his lifelong obsession with women to craft the early tales of the Amazonian Wonder Woman. You'll learn about his wife. And his other wife. And his other other kind-of wife.
You'll be confused by what scholarship/writing should be attributed to whom between the primary threesome. You'll be bewildered by the lengths of the deception that the unofficial wife went to keep Marston's progenitorship a secret from her children. And you'll be slightly weirded out by how closely Margaret Sanger weaves in to all of it.
The book focuses heavily on the early comics (up until Marston's death), then sort of writes off the entire 50+ other years with a "the people who came directly after Marston were chauvinist pigs" which, while not inaccurate, is not exactly meeting the mantle of "history."
That being said, this book is essential for truly understanding Wonder Woman, her origins and her standing/place in the culture at large.
The epilogue might be the best part, but it's all pretty good.
informative
medium-paced