Scan barcode
A review by beccabeccalee
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon
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.