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A review by erboe501
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon
5.0
This is one of the liveliest, best narrated biographies I've read. I knew some about Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley's lives, and I've read some of their works. But I didn't realize the extent of their rebellions against society's expectations of women.
Gordon does a masterful job of interpreting Wollstonecraft's heartache in a way that still gives her agency and independence. It was horrifying to read how her husband William Godwin ruined her reputation as a serious writer for over 100 years with his selfish biography of her. Likewise, the Victorian whitewashing of Mary Shelley's role as an independent writer. A few times Gordon's filling in of the blanks in both Mary's lives felt a little like a stretch. But I appreciated how she always clarified when there was a dearth of evidence and when something was supposition. It's a good reminder that biographies, and history in general, are never definitive.
I found it fascinating how, in spite of the women's conviction to live independent and equal to men, when they joined in domestic arrangements with a man, the domestic duties inevitably fell to the women, in spite of the men's espousal of equality. In many ways, that problem of lip service v. lived expectation remains a tension in domestic arrangements today.
The dual biography structure with one chapter about Wollstonecraft, followed by one about Shelley, repeated, was useful to see how the women's lives mapped onto each other. However, because Gordon did such a good job of making the reader invested in the action, the close of each chapter and return to the other woman's storyline was always a little disconcerting, wrenching me out of the story.
I would highly recommend.
Gordon does a masterful job of interpreting Wollstonecraft's heartache in a way that still gives her agency and independence. It was horrifying to read how her husband William Godwin ruined her reputation as a serious writer for over 100 years with his selfish biography of her. Likewise, the Victorian whitewashing of Mary Shelley's role as an independent writer. A few times Gordon's filling in of the blanks in both Mary's lives felt a little like a stretch. But I appreciated how she always clarified when there was a dearth of evidence and when something was supposition. It's a good reminder that biographies, and history in general, are never definitive.
I found it fascinating how, in spite of the women's conviction to live independent and equal to men, when they joined in domestic arrangements with a man, the domestic duties inevitably fell to the women, in spite of the men's espousal of equality. In many ways, that problem of lip service v. lived expectation remains a tension in domestic arrangements today.
The dual biography structure with one chapter about Wollstonecraft, followed by one about Shelley, repeated, was useful to see how the women's lives mapped onto each other. However, because Gordon did such a good job of making the reader invested in the action, the close of each chapter and return to the other woman's storyline was always a little disconcerting, wrenching me out of the story.
I would highly recommend.