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beccabeccalee's review against another edition
5.0
Since reading this book, I can't stop thinking about something that happened recently to a female friend of mine. My friend was in in her yard spreading mulch when a neighbor girl asked what she was doing, She explained that she was taking care of her yard while her husband was at work. The girl let out a sigh and replied, "Ladies gotta do all the work."
As I read the stories of both Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, that phrase kept coming back to me. Ladies gotta do all the work! At a time when women were expected to stay safely inside the domestic sphere, both Marys used what gifts they possessed to achieve literary greatness. They demanded more of the men and women around them, becoming fierce advocates of female empowerment and betterment. They studied, discussed, wrote, and lived in truly revolutionary ways. Not only were they writers and thinkers, they were also women of feeling, deeply devoted to their families and spouses. They tried to live in equal partnership with their husbands and lovers, seeking space outside their domestic duties to cultivate their own work and ideas.
And yet, both women still placed great value on family life. The struggle these women went through to maintain a balance between work and family is something that many women today will likely resonate with. I know I did.
This personal connection to these important women was one of the most delightful aspects of the book. As a writer, activist, and mother, I felt immediate connection with both Marys. The political landscape they inherited was one that demanded intelligent and empathetic responses from the writers of the age, a task that few were up to. Despite the cultural perceptions about women at the time, both Marys were able to break into the public sphere in dramatic ways. They wrote truly revolutionary works about so many topics, and shaped public thought in ways that few women had before. I found their tenacity both compelling and inspirational.
Likewise, I think readers will enjoy the focus on two highly influential women of the time. I love Romantic period literature, but in graduate school we mostly focused on the male players of the era: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. We spent some time talking about early female novelists, but for the most part, our studies revolved around men. Actually, we were more likely to study less prominent male writers like James Hogg and William Hazlitt than we were to study female writers in depth. As a result, I had literary and academic preconceptions about both Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. So although I was eager to read this book, I didn't anticipate that I would be so affected by their stories. In part, this can be attributed to the expert storytelling of the author. Charlotte Gordon is a gifted historian and storyteller. Since finishing Romantic Outlaws, I would read any biography she chose to tackle.
In sum, I cannot recommend this book enough. It was one of the most engaging biographies I've read, and one of the best books I read this year. Both Marys were fleshed out in detail, their lives and the context for their works made imminently real. I felt such kinship with these women, and I learned so much about what it means to be a revolutionary through this book. I can't wait to read Letters from Sweden, and to visit some of Mary Shelley's lesser-known works.
As I read the stories of both Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, that phrase kept coming back to me. Ladies gotta do all the work! At a time when women were expected to stay safely inside the domestic sphere, both Marys used what gifts they possessed to achieve literary greatness. They demanded more of the men and women around them, becoming fierce advocates of female empowerment and betterment. They studied, discussed, wrote, and lived in truly revolutionary ways. Not only were they writers and thinkers, they were also women of feeling, deeply devoted to their families and spouses. They tried to live in equal partnership with their husbands and lovers, seeking space outside their domestic duties to cultivate their own work and ideas.
And yet, both women still placed great value on family life. The struggle these women went through to maintain a balance between work and family is something that many women today will likely resonate with. I know I did.
This personal connection to these important women was one of the most delightful aspects of the book. As a writer, activist, and mother, I felt immediate connection with both Marys. The political landscape they inherited was one that demanded intelligent and empathetic responses from the writers of the age, a task that few were up to. Despite the cultural perceptions about women at the time, both Marys were able to break into the public sphere in dramatic ways. They wrote truly revolutionary works about so many topics, and shaped public thought in ways that few women had before. I found their tenacity both compelling and inspirational.
Likewise, I think readers will enjoy the focus on two highly influential women of the time. I love Romantic period literature, but in graduate school we mostly focused on the male players of the era: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. We spent some time talking about early female novelists, but for the most part, our studies revolved around men. Actually, we were more likely to study less prominent male writers like James Hogg and William Hazlitt than we were to study female writers in depth. As a result, I had literary and academic preconceptions about both Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. So although I was eager to read this book, I didn't anticipate that I would be so affected by their stories. In part, this can be attributed to the expert storytelling of the author. Charlotte Gordon is a gifted historian and storyteller. Since finishing Romantic Outlaws, I would read any biography she chose to tackle.
In sum, I cannot recommend this book enough. It was one of the most engaging biographies I've read, and one of the best books I read this year. Both Marys were fleshed out in detail, their lives and the context for their works made imminently real. I felt such kinship with these women, and I learned so much about what it means to be a revolutionary through this book. I can't wait to read Letters from Sweden, and to visit some of Mary Shelley's lesser-known works.
rallisaurus's review against another edition
5.0
The short version: never marry a Romantic poet or a philosopher. #matriarchy
fragglerocker's review against another edition
5.0
It's always enjoyable to read about feminists, even more so when they pushed for equal rights in the late 1700's. I had no idea who Mary Wollstonecraft was before reading this book, and only knew that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Even as these two women built their careers as writers, they were also mothers and had to manage a household. The struggles they had: managing tight finances, keeping a household running, having insufficient help with child rearing all parallel struggles working women still have today, 200+ years later. I look forward to reading Frankenstein -- I had no idea it was so subversive.
jackgoss's review against another edition
2.0
I don't think the every other chapter format was a great choice. The action in the chapters wasn't synced or timed to highlight parallels or provoke interesting comparisons. Many of the people share the same few first and last names, which makes it confusing and hard to keep track of, especially the minor characters. Telling the story chronologically would have made it easier on the reader to not have to keep the traits and timelines of 5 Marys and 4 Janes and 3 Elizabeths in mind at all times. The people who are in both sections are generally introduced in the daughter's section s, which leads to a lack of context.
I hated just about all these people. Especially all the Men. Especially Godwin.
This is a great illustration of how critical contraception has been to society and to individual women. For all the grand ideas and idealism, both women had to tie themselves to men with children.
I hated just about all these people. Especially all the Men. Especially Godwin.
This is a great illustration of how critical contraception has been to society and to individual women. For all the grand ideas and idealism, both women had to tie themselves to men with children.
lindseysparks's review against another edition
3.0
I liked format more in theory than practice, I think. It goes back and forth between Mary W and Mary S, but because they have the same name and many of the other people appear in both threads, it got a little confusing, especially when I'd out the book down and come back it would take a while to adjust. It also was hard to keep track of some people who play minor roles, and are mentioned once vaguely, then you switch to the other storyline, then many pages later that person pops up again with no reference to who they are. Once I sat down and just plowed through it worked, but it just seemed more convoluted than necessary. I did enjoy the dual biography overall and get what she was doing in show parallels in their lives, I think just having a reference list or small clues to remind you who someone was when they hadn't been mentioned in a while would have helped a lot. And it probably would have been fine if I was reading it for study and therefore taking notes as opposed to just for fun. Regardless, I learned a lot about both women and definitely think it's worth the read.
e333mily's review
5.0
My heart aches for Wollstonecraft and Shelley. I will write a better review when I have more coherent thoughts. For now I am just angry at every single 19th Century man.
lethalballet's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Very intricate dual biography and I learned a lot but the pacing wasn't great.
Also I do want to know what complicated bottom half undergarments the author thought Mary was wearing in 1814...
Also I do want to know what complicated bottom half undergarments the author thought Mary was wearing in 1814...
xole's review against another edition
4.0
How little things have changed over half a century... My last handful of books have focused on women in the Renaissance, and I was stunned (though sadly not surprised) that in reading about the lot of women two hundred years later things had not only not gotten better, in some ways they’d gotten worse. The enforced helplessness of women, the terror inflicted on them by men wanting to maintain control, the sexual slavery, financial slavery, abuse and humiliation, social shunning, and the accepted political and scientific belief that women are creatures less evolved than men... It’s utterly horrifying (even more so because some of these things are still going on today). And then, there were the examples of how men reacted to both Wollstonecraft’s and Shelley’s writing - those same hateful, reductive criticisms are still levelled at women today. I can only hope that some day, people will read books like this, and shake their heads at the appalling historical treatment of women, rather than have to see themselves in it.