A review by hauntedorchid
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon

5.0

In this exceptional, entertaining dual-biography, Charlotte Gordon explores the lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley with dedication, warmth, and insight. The author’s device of interweaving the two stories is highly effective, allowing the reader to understand how Wollstonecraft’s legacy influenced her daughter, and to see how they were both deeply affected by the constraints placed on women in their society. More than a biography, this book is a work of social history that will be fascinating to anyone with an interest in the lives of ordinary women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.