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Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite History & Biography (2015)***AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4***
'A gripping account of the heartbreaks and triumphs of two of history's most formidable female intellectuals, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Gordon has reunited mother and daughter through biography, beautifully weaving their narratives for the first time.' Amanda Foreman
English feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and author Mary Shelley were mother and daughter, yet these two extraordinary women never knew one another. Nevertheless, their passionate and pioneering lives remained closely intertwined, their choices, dreams and tragedies eerily similar.
Both Marys became famous writers, fell in love with brilliant but impossible men, and were single mothers out of wedlock; both lived in exile, fought for their position in society and thought deeply about how we should live.
They also broke every rigid convention thrust upon them: Wollstonecraft chased pirates in Scandinavia and sailed to Paris to witness the Revolution. Shelley eloped in a fishing boat with a married man and faced down bandits in Naples. Wollstonecraft proclaimed that women’s liberty should matter to everyone.
Not only did Wollstonecraft pen the landmark book, The Vindication of the Rights of Woman, her work ignited Romanticism, inspiring a whole new generation of writers, including her daughter. At just nineteen years old, Mary travelled around Italy with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, and there wrote Frankenstein. Having pushed the boundaries of the literary form, she went on to become the editor of her husband’s poetry – a feat of scholarship that established his posthumous reputation.
For the first time, Romantic Outlaws brings together a pair of visionary women who should have shared a life, but who instead share a powerful literary and feminist legacy. This is inventive, illuminating, involving biography at its best.
'A gripping account of the heartbreaks and triumphs of two of history's most formidable female intellectuals, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Gordon has reunited mother and daughter through biography, beautifully weaving their narratives for the first time.' Amanda Foreman
English feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and author Mary Shelley were mother and daughter, yet these two extraordinary women never knew one another. Nevertheless, their passionate and pioneering lives remained closely intertwined, their choices, dreams and tragedies eerily similar.
Both Marys became famous writers, fell in love with brilliant but impossible men, and were single mothers out of wedlock; both lived in exile, fought for their position in society and thought deeply about how we should live.
They also broke every rigid convention thrust upon them: Wollstonecraft chased pirates in Scandinavia and sailed to Paris to witness the Revolution. Shelley eloped in a fishing boat with a married man and faced down bandits in Naples. Wollstonecraft proclaimed that women’s liberty should matter to everyone.
Not only did Wollstonecraft pen the landmark book, The Vindication of the Rights of Woman, her work ignited Romanticism, inspiring a whole new generation of writers, including her daughter. At just nineteen years old, Mary travelled around Italy with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, and there wrote Frankenstein. Having pushed the boundaries of the literary form, she went on to become the editor of her husband’s poetry – a feat of scholarship that established his posthumous reputation.
For the first time, Romantic Outlaws brings together a pair of visionary women who should have shared a life, but who instead share a powerful literary and feminist legacy. This is inventive, illuminating, involving biography at its best.
672 pages, Hardcover
First published April 23, 2015
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May 8, 2024
A fascinating deep dive into the lives of two remarkable women. 🖤
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ORIGINAL POST 👇
Click here to watch a video review of on my (old) BookTube channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
An intimate look at the lives of two extraordinary women who unapologetically broke with convention and scandalized Victorian England. Romantic Outlaws is a must read for rebel girls.
Here is everything you ever wanted to know about Mary Shelley (who wrote Frankenstein) and her trailblazing mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. This includes all the dark and gritty aspects of their lives, the admirable and amazing, the truly strange.
Highly recommend!
I'm on BookTube again! Come find me at Hello, Bookworm📚🐛
ORIGINAL POST 👇
Click here to watch a video review of on my (old) BookTube channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
An intimate look at the lives of two extraordinary women who unapologetically broke with convention and scandalized Victorian England. Romantic Outlaws is a must read for rebel girls.
Here is everything you ever wanted to know about Mary Shelley (who wrote Frankenstein) and her trailblazing mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. This includes all the dark and gritty aspects of their lives, the admirable and amazing, the truly strange.
Highly recommend!
January 9, 2023
It’s such a tragedy that two of the greatest writers of the romantic literary era never had the chance to know each other, a chance to discuss ideas and to help each other with their craft: they never got chance to talk and to be a proper family.
Mary Wollstonecraft died just five days after giving birth to her daughter Mary. Mary Shelley would learn about her mother through her writing and through her father William Godwin. She gained an image and an idea of what her feminist mother was like and what she stood for, and this greatly influenced her own life. She did not know her mother in person, but her writing helped her form a connection: it helped her to understand her legacy and to create her own.
Mary Wollstonecraft, on the other hand, never got to read Frankenstein or The Last Man. She never got to see how her daughter’s literary genius matched her own and would even come to surpass it. I wonder what Wollstonecraft would have made of Mary’s husband, Shelley, and his own radical views. I wonder what else she could have written had she lived longer. I wonder. I wonder. And I think she would have loved the work her daughter created: she would have seen much of herself in it.
This book is such an ambitious project. It chronicles the lives of both writers, and it demonstrates how in some ways the tragedy and drama are paralleled across time. Both women had very tumultuous experiences and it shaped who they were and what they wrote about. After the exhaustive research, Gordon is making a very strong case for how much Wollstonecraft influenced Mary Shelley. Her ideas creep across Mary Shelley’s work. And it’s fantastic to see.
Overall, this is a very good book for those interested in the work of either writer. However, it is a bit of a slow burn but a bright one!
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Mary Wollstonecraft died just five days after giving birth to her daughter Mary. Mary Shelley would learn about her mother through her writing and through her father William Godwin. She gained an image and an idea of what her feminist mother was like and what she stood for, and this greatly influenced her own life. She did not know her mother in person, but her writing helped her form a connection: it helped her to understand her legacy and to create her own.
Mary Wollstonecraft, on the other hand, never got to read Frankenstein or The Last Man. She never got to see how her daughter’s literary genius matched her own and would even come to surpass it. I wonder what Wollstonecraft would have made of Mary’s husband, Shelley, and his own radical views. I wonder what else she could have written had she lived longer. I wonder. I wonder. And I think she would have loved the work her daughter created: she would have seen much of herself in it.
This book is such an ambitious project. It chronicles the lives of both writers, and it demonstrates how in some ways the tragedy and drama are paralleled across time. Both women had very tumultuous experiences and it shaped who they were and what they wrote about. After the exhaustive research, Gordon is making a very strong case for how much Wollstonecraft influenced Mary Shelley. Her ideas creep across Mary Shelley’s work. And it’s fantastic to see.
Overall, this is a very good book for those interested in the work of either writer. However, it is a bit of a slow burn but a bright one!
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree.
__________________________________
July 6, 2015
This dual biography of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley utterly enthralled me. Both were talented, groundbreaking, independent thinking women, they each had drama and difficulties in their lives worthy of a Brontë novel, and between them they knew intimately some of the most interesting people involved with Romantic literature and radical political thought from the French Revolution through to the mid-Victorian years.
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born into a poor family with a very difficult, sometimes violent father, but Wollstonecraft was at least as spirited as he was and she struggled to surmount the boundaries gender and poverty put on her life in every way she could, eventually becoming a leading progressive thinker and the author of several influential books, including A Vindication of the Rights of Women. She loved passionately but refused the traditional roles women were expected to embrace at the time, so she married the political philosopher William Godwin late in life and only reluctantly. Wollstonecraft died days after giving birth to the daughter named for her, so it was through her extensive writings that Mary Godwin Shelley came to esteem, cherish, and love her mother.
While still a teenager Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein, a social commentary many consider the first science fiction novel, while holed up in Switzerland with a crowd that included Lord Byron. Like her parents she rejected social conventions about love, life, and marriage and at sixteen she scandalized her more staid contemporaries by running away with the already married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, though that particular rebellion she came to regret because it hurt so many people. Mary longed for and looked up to her mother, using her mother’s writings as guideposts for her own life, and that reverence was shared by her husband, her stepsister, Lord Byron, and many of Mary’s other peers.
Romantic Outlaws is written in a back and forth chronology, with chapters about the two women alternating, so the section about Wollstonecraft’s early life is followed by one about her daughter at a similar age. I thought this might be confusing, especially since they’re both named Mary, but their circumstances were different enough that it was usually simple to keep track of who I was reading about, and structuring the book that way makes it easy to compare the lives of the women, which adds even more interest to their stories.
The book is well researched and documented with notes, but far from being a dry recitation of facts I found it very compelling. Many of the chapters even end in what might almost be called cliffhangers, a technique that definitely kept me highly engaged.
Before reading this biography both Marys were more symbols to me than women with families, lovers, personal trials and private doubts, but Charlotte Gordon illuminates the hearts and minds of her subjects and succeeds at bringing the two women and the era they lived in to life. William Godwin, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron are among the people who are also well rendered, and many other fascinating people spend time on the book’s pages, including Coleridge, Keats, and John and Abigail Adams.
Saying it’s engrossing is almost an understatement--I don’t remember ever finding a biography so hard to put down. I read an advanced review ebook copy of this book supplied by the publisher through NetGalley, but I’ve already preordered my own copy hardback edition of Romantic Outlaws.
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born into a poor family with a very difficult, sometimes violent father, but Wollstonecraft was at least as spirited as he was and she struggled to surmount the boundaries gender and poverty put on her life in every way she could, eventually becoming a leading progressive thinker and the author of several influential books, including A Vindication of the Rights of Women. She loved passionately but refused the traditional roles women were expected to embrace at the time, so she married the political philosopher William Godwin late in life and only reluctantly. Wollstonecraft died days after giving birth to the daughter named for her, so it was through her extensive writings that Mary Godwin Shelley came to esteem, cherish, and love her mother.
While still a teenager Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein, a social commentary many consider the first science fiction novel, while holed up in Switzerland with a crowd that included Lord Byron. Like her parents she rejected social conventions about love, life, and marriage and at sixteen she scandalized her more staid contemporaries by running away with the already married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, though that particular rebellion she came to regret because it hurt so many people. Mary longed for and looked up to her mother, using her mother’s writings as guideposts for her own life, and that reverence was shared by her husband, her stepsister, Lord Byron, and many of Mary’s other peers.
Romantic Outlaws is written in a back and forth chronology, with chapters about the two women alternating, so the section about Wollstonecraft’s early life is followed by one about her daughter at a similar age. I thought this might be confusing, especially since they’re both named Mary, but their circumstances were different enough that it was usually simple to keep track of who I was reading about, and structuring the book that way makes it easy to compare the lives of the women, which adds even more interest to their stories.
The book is well researched and documented with notes, but far from being a dry recitation of facts I found it very compelling. Many of the chapters even end in what might almost be called cliffhangers, a technique that definitely kept me highly engaged.
Before reading this biography both Marys were more symbols to me than women with families, lovers, personal trials and private doubts, but Charlotte Gordon illuminates the hearts and minds of her subjects and succeeds at bringing the two women and the era they lived in to life. William Godwin, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron are among the people who are also well rendered, and many other fascinating people spend time on the book’s pages, including Coleridge, Keats, and John and Abigail Adams.
Saying it’s engrossing is almost an understatement--I don’t remember ever finding a biography so hard to put down. I read an advanced review ebook copy of this book supplied by the publisher through NetGalley, but I’ve already preordered my own copy hardback edition of Romantic Outlaws.
December 27, 2015
3.5 I have thought long and hard what to put in this review. Brilliant mother and daughter, fighters for women's rights, led lives that were frowned upon during their days and penned books that have impacted many and lived on. The author does a great job telling their stories in alternating chapters, using crisp and clear dialogue and moving the narrative forward at a stay pace. At times though I would be interested in one part of the narrative and it would end and switch to the other. Could keep reader a reader at a distance and at times proved confusing. I also thought at times I could sense the author inserting her personal opinions rather than historical fact.
Did get a good sense of who these people were. Such notable names that we still read today. Yet I have to admit to not liking many of them and I think this colored my reading. Wollstonecraft, while I admired her dedication did some mighty strange things. Byron and Shelley were less than desirable humans in my eyes, geniuses or not. Felt that these people often used the cover of brilliance and the notoriety of being thought different to think only of themselves. They mostly did whatever they wanted to at the time, with little concern for others and their feelings. Very selfish people who caused much harm to innocent and not so innocent people. Even Mary, though she loved her children seemed very self centered at times.
Still a very interesting look at a time in literature that is still important today. Women's rights, early defenders, a mother and daughter who never knew each other but made a huge impact during a time period where woman were granted very few.
Did get a good sense of who these people were. Such notable names that we still read today. Yet I have to admit to not liking many of them and I think this colored my reading. Wollstonecraft, while I admired her dedication did some mighty strange things. Byron and Shelley were less than desirable humans in my eyes, geniuses or not. Felt that these people often used the cover of brilliance and the notoriety of being thought different to think only of themselves. They mostly did whatever they wanted to at the time, with little concern for others and their feelings. Very selfish people who caused much harm to innocent and not so innocent people. Even Mary, though she loved her children seemed very self centered at times.
Still a very interesting look at a time in literature that is still important today. Women's rights, early defenders, a mother and daughter who never knew each other but made a huge impact during a time period where woman were granted very few.
November 24, 2025
this was incredible! in this dual-biography of mary wollstonecraft and her daughter, mary shelley, gordon delves into their childhoods, their careers, and the marks they’ve both left on the world. it’s a very well-written and compassionate book that doesn’t bog the reader down with too much historical context, but simultaneously doesn’t patronise the reader, either - which i very much appreciated. the pacing slows down at the end, but i was enthralled throughout the majority of this. a non-fiction tome for sure, but a worthy one, especially if you’re interested in either of these women or feminist history in general.
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non fic november and also all the frankenstein discourse motivated me to finally read this
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non fic november and also all the frankenstein discourse motivated me to finally read this
October 9, 2025
A marvelous biography of Mary Shelly and her equally important mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. The author illustrates Wollstonecraft's significance to the world and her daughter by alternating chapters between her story and Shelley's.
There are no boring parts since both Marys lives were scandal-rich, trailblazing and interactive with other historical notables. Death, polyamory, secret pregnancies, bisexual affairs, cancel culture, blackmail and more shocking details fill these pages. Though the time and place is over 200 years ago, much of the socio-political turmoil remains relevant to modern times.
Today, Frankenstein is so permeated into our collective consciousness that it's hard to imagine a world without the sympathetic reanimated monster. Sadly, Mary Shelley died having seen only a faint indication her novel would endure. A few loosely adapted play versions were produced during her lifetime, but otherwise she was best known for being the wife of Percy Shelly and the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft.
Perhaps, however, there was some inkling the world would eventually catch up with her progressive views and want to know her unabridged story. Mary Shelley's journals are shockingly complete, allowing the biographer to give play-by-play accounts of her entire life, including even the most intimate details. Access to this level of documents is truly a miracle and for that reason alone the biography is a fantastic read.
Of course, even the author acknowledges that her work is largely possible thanks to numerous earlier biographers who have compiled and analyzed these documents. What makes Romantic Outlaws different is the structure. Alternating between Wollstonecraft and Shelley was a game-changing move. It effectively illustrate the mother's influence on the psychology of the daughter, despite Shelley having no memory of her mother, who died due to childbirth complications. Additionally, we see a surprising number of parallels between the two women.
I love biographies but admit some can be dry. This one is not. Likely this is in part due to the ceaselessly fascinating subjects, but also the expert unfurling of information. This is a BIG book that'll take a while to finish, but is totally worth it. One of the best books I've read in a long time.
There are no boring parts since both Marys lives were scandal-rich, trailblazing and interactive with other historical notables. Death, polyamory, secret pregnancies, bisexual affairs, cancel culture, blackmail and more shocking details fill these pages. Though the time and place is over 200 years ago, much of the socio-political turmoil remains relevant to modern times.
Today, Frankenstein is so permeated into our collective consciousness that it's hard to imagine a world without the sympathetic reanimated monster. Sadly, Mary Shelley died having seen only a faint indication her novel would endure. A few loosely adapted play versions were produced during her lifetime, but otherwise she was best known for being the wife of Percy Shelly and the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft.
Perhaps, however, there was some inkling the world would eventually catch up with her progressive views and want to know her unabridged story. Mary Shelley's journals are shockingly complete, allowing the biographer to give play-by-play accounts of her entire life, including even the most intimate details. Access to this level of documents is truly a miracle and for that reason alone the biography is a fantastic read.
Of course, even the author acknowledges that her work is largely possible thanks to numerous earlier biographers who have compiled and analyzed these documents. What makes Romantic Outlaws different is the structure. Alternating between Wollstonecraft and Shelley was a game-changing move. It effectively illustrate the mother's influence on the psychology of the daughter, despite Shelley having no memory of her mother, who died due to childbirth complications. Additionally, we see a surprising number of parallels between the two women.
I love biographies but admit some can be dry. This one is not. Likely this is in part due to the ceaselessly fascinating subjects, but also the expert unfurling of information. This is a BIG book that'll take a while to finish, but is totally worth it. One of the best books I've read in a long time.
December 28, 2021
Świetnie napisana biografia.
May 14, 2018
As soon as I started reading this double biography I got sucked in. It chronicles the lives of two amazing Marys. Mary Wollstonecraft the reformer and her daughter Mary Godwin Shelley.
MW and MGS both became famous in their own right during the times when they lived. Nowadays the more well known of the two is MGS because of her story "Frankenstein".
I have read previous biographies about both Marys. And this one will proudly sit on my self with other biographies I have about these amazing women along with other books I have dealing with "The Romantic Movement" and "Frankenstein".
Charlotte Gordon's writing style kept me engaged and I wanted to keep reading more. And I am grateful for the bibliography that she created for this book. I will get a chance to add more new books to my TBR that I have missed out on.
Give this wonderful biography a go.
MW and MGS both became famous in their own right during the times when they lived. Nowadays the more well known of the two is MGS because of her story "Frankenstein".
I have read previous biographies about both Marys. And this one will proudly sit on my self with other biographies I have about these amazing women along with other books I have dealing with "The Romantic Movement" and "Frankenstein".
Charlotte Gordon's writing style kept me engaged and I wanted to keep reading more. And I am grateful for the bibliography that she created for this book. I will get a chance to add more new books to my TBR that I have missed out on.
Give this wonderful biography a go.
September 10, 2015
This book borders on wrist-breaker status but despite the volume I wish there was more to read. I picked it up as more of a self-education piece and break from fiction, not really thinking about the entertainment factor. I learned so much. I had no idea who Mary Wollstonecraft was or how much hardship she and her daughter, Mary Shelley, went through during their lifetimes. Their hardships, strengths of character and literary talent make them incredibly inspirational.
Mary Wollstonecraft is born into a poor family with an alcoholic, abusive father, a depressed mother and many siblings. With this rough beginning, she chooses to educate herself and takes over the care of her two younger sisters for much of her lifetime. Despite living in a very misogynistic and conservative time, Mary W. is able to publish her opinions of the need to educate young women and to banish the ideals of the dainty, unintelligent housewife.
Mary Shelley grows up in a house where people want to meet her simply because of her parents’ celebrity. Her mother passed away shortly after Mary’s birth, but the author proves throughout the book how much Mary W’s ideals affected her daughter. Mary S. also struggles with the conservative nature of the time and spends much of her life in exile with her husband, stepsister and yes, sometimes Lord Byron.
It’s amazing to me how strong these women were in such difficult times and how their family depended on them but gave them little credit for their hard work. For example, when Mary S. ran away with Shelley, her father refused to talk to her...except to beg for money. Both Mary’s suffered from depression yet somehow overcame their mental illnesses to continue writing important works of art.
I highly recommend this book.
Mary Wollstonecraft is born into a poor family with an alcoholic, abusive father, a depressed mother and many siblings. With this rough beginning, she chooses to educate herself and takes over the care of her two younger sisters for much of her lifetime. Despite living in a very misogynistic and conservative time, Mary W. is able to publish her opinions of the need to educate young women and to banish the ideals of the dainty, unintelligent housewife.
Mary Shelley grows up in a house where people want to meet her simply because of her parents’ celebrity. Her mother passed away shortly after Mary’s birth, but the author proves throughout the book how much Mary W’s ideals affected her daughter. Mary S. also struggles with the conservative nature of the time and spends much of her life in exile with her husband, stepsister and yes, sometimes Lord Byron.
It’s amazing to me how strong these women were in such difficult times and how their family depended on them but gave them little credit for their hard work. For example, when Mary S. ran away with Shelley, her father refused to talk to her...except to beg for money. Both Mary’s suffered from depression yet somehow overcame their mental illnesses to continue writing important works of art.
I highly recommend this book.
October 5, 2015
Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) died within days of giving birth to Mary Godwin who became Mary Shelley the writer/creator of “Frankenstein”. While death was a physical separation of Wollstonecraft and her daughter, author Charlotte Gordon explores how Wollstonecraft and her views on the role of women were embedded in Mary Godwin Shelley.
While the facts speak for themselves (women had no legal rights either to their property or their children in deference to a father or husband) Gordon shows through the lives of her two subjects the very thing they wrote about - the horrible situation of a battered, unwed pregnant and/or emotionally abused woman. Society looked the other way, and most women, joined the powerful male authority structure in blaming the victim. What else could they do when all in their lives depended on a husband or father?
One common reaction of women to the pecking order was a sense of entitlement. This is exemplified by Wollstonecraft’s sisters who, since the males in their family either would not or could not support them, made demands on Mary who was barely afloat herself. Claire, Mary Shelley’s half sister, similarly demands support from the Shelley’s all the while interfering with their marriage. Mary-Jane, Mary Shelley’s step-mother who undermined her very life, similarly expected much of Mary Shelley. Both Mary’s responded with charity as they could.
Another reaction is despair for being a burden which is exemplified in Fanny, Mary Wollstonecraft’s first daughter and Harriet, Percy Shelley’s first wife.
As per the title, both Mary’s stepped outside society’s laws by following their hearts. Wollstonecraft’s passion for Gilbert Imlay was freighted with her unmet needs which we barely understand today. Her daughter “eloped” with a married man (and her step sister). These relationships, for which the women risked so much, were far from ideal. Gordon shows how friends and society found many ways to condemn them for things beyond their control.
The hypocrisy of men in their lives was staggering. William Godwin (whom Mary marries to save her unborn child the crushing stigma suffered by her first child) continues to instruct Mary, a more celebrated writer than he, in grammar, style and technique. He writes against marriage as bondage for women but, without a hint that he sees the irony, will not speak to his daughter until she marries. Later, this father, after shunning his daughter for years (while seeking a loan from the man he thinks she should marry) and publishing her mother’s most personal and embarrassing letters demands (and receives) support from her. Percy Shelley and Lord Byron are a pair… both blithely have affairs and leave partners and children to fend for themselves.
The book is full. There is description of the culture of the times, not only male/female roles, but different climates in France as it pursued its Revolution and terror, and the awareness of the freer climate in the former colonies an ocean away. There is analysis of literature produced by the principles (Wollstonecraft, Godwin, M. Shelley, P. Shelley, Byron) a description of its meaning for the writers and where it fits in their relationships. Most intriguing to me were the ongoing descriptions of how the two women were viewed in their lifetimes and how the perception of them changed… some by design, and some by their writings which we see today as being way ahead of their times.
The style of defining one woman and then the other at a comparable life milestone was jarring and took a few rounds to get used to. The Index got me everywhere I needed to go. There are good illustrations that help you envision the key people. While times are well defined, a timeline for quick reference would have been helpful.
If you are interested in these women, this period, British literature, women’s rights or just enjoy a thought provoking book, this book is for you.
Read
April 7, 2019Eminently readable biography of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. It's swapped off, each woman every other chapter. I found it best to skip the chapters and read one then the other. Well researched, but the author couldn't resist inserting her own opinions, occasionally self-servingly modern, even fatuous (such as the one about Claire Clairmont converting to Catholicism late in life to "share the same upbringing as her dead daughter") which has a tendency to make me look very warily at other "insights." But that's no different than most biographies.
Aside from that, it's a vivid portrayal of a cast of fascinating people, filled with plenty of quotes, and some vivid descriptions of sites. The notes at the ends of the chapters are filled with good primary source stuff, especially for the reader who can't get at the things kept in archives or that cost hundreds of bucks to get copies of.
Aside from that, it's a vivid portrayal of a cast of fascinating people, filled with plenty of quotes, and some vivid descriptions of sites. The notes at the ends of the chapters are filled with good primary source stuff, especially for the reader who can't get at the things kept in archives or that cost hundreds of bucks to get copies of.
May 22, 2025
This book has two major things going for it.
First, Mary and Mary are supremely interesting as people. Nowadays, feminist means a lot of things to a lot of different people. Mary W. was a pioneer and devoted her life to championing feminism. She also got called a (not nice name that ryhmes with bore) and people tried to discredit her.
Mary S. is just as interesting. And complex. These are not women who always lived by society’s rules even today. Their writings are not just good books. They are works of genius. And again, they got called names, and then people tried to say men wrote their books.
The structure of this book takes it from being very good to amazing in and of itself. Gordon alternates between mother and daughter each chapter. It changes it from a dual biography to almost a comparison of the women. Amazingly, you see such similarities between their lives that it becomes eerie. It makes all the difference in making this a book you hope doesn’t stop.
First, Mary and Mary are supremely interesting as people. Nowadays, feminist means a lot of things to a lot of different people. Mary W. was a pioneer and devoted her life to championing feminism. She also got called a (not nice name that ryhmes with bore) and people tried to discredit her.
Mary S. is just as interesting. And complex. These are not women who always lived by society’s rules even today. Their writings are not just good books. They are works of genius. And again, they got called names, and then people tried to say men wrote their books.
The structure of this book takes it from being very good to amazing in and of itself. Gordon alternates between mother and daughter each chapter. It changes it from a dual biography to almost a comparison of the women. Amazingly, you see such similarities between their lives that it becomes eerie. It makes all the difference in making this a book you hope doesn’t stop.
February 15, 2022
4.5 Stars
This isn’t one to just sit down and blow through. This book was rough. These women went through some shite. I felt sorry for them and I love their strength.
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
This isn’t one to just sit down and blow through. This book was rough. These women went through some shite. I felt sorry for them and I love their strength.
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
October 1, 2018
Guau! qué vidas las de Wollstonecraft y su hija Mary... Ellas, Shelley, Byron, Godwin.. escritores que junto con el resto de integrantes de sus respectivas biografías, demás familiares, como hermanas e hijos, amigos y no tan amigos, son “personajes”, seres, que se van a quedar conmigo por lo hondo que me han calado.
Cuantas cosas he aprendido de este libro..
Me parece altamente recomendable esta doble biografía. Charlotte Gordon dedica cada capítulo a una Mary, y así, con ambas a la vez avanzamos al mismo tiempo en sus vidas, luchas y dramas de madre e hija, y lejos de desubicarme me ha gustado esa originalidad, llegando un punto (al desconocer la mayor parte de los sucesos biográficos) que he devorado el libro.
Cuantas cosas he aprendido de este libro..
Me parece altamente recomendable esta doble biografía. Charlotte Gordon dedica cada capítulo a una Mary, y así, con ambas a la vez avanzamos al mismo tiempo en sus vidas, luchas y dramas de madre e hija, y lejos de desubicarme me ha gustado esa originalidad, llegando un punto (al desconocer la mayor parte de los sucesos biográficos) que he devorado el libro.
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September 24, 2024
Wspa-nia-ła! Zachwyciłam się historią tych kobiet, a konstrukcja książki zasługuje na pochwały.
Przez wielki Wollstonecraft omijano w historii literatury, nie interesowano się jej dokonaniami, a bardziej poświęcano czas jej życiu prywatnemu (nieślubne dziecko z innego związku). Stała się osobistością, której teksty brano na poważnie tylko, jeżeli podpisywało jako mężczyzna. Żyła w czasach, w których matkom odbierano dziecko, wykorzystywano i krzywdzono kobiety, a i tak niewiele miały do powiedzenia. Mary obserwowała i pisała o tym, miała rewolucyjne podejście do życia małżeńskiego i do pracy kobiet w ogóle. Zwracała uwagę na to, jak nierówno dzielone są obowiązki domowe.
Jej córka Mary Shelley od narodzin podążała śladami swojej matki, inspirowała się nią, cytowała jej twórczość. Z miłości uciekła z poetą Percym Shelleyem. Tak jak matka, omijana w historii literatury, jej Frankenstein to w sumie jedynie dzieło, które tak dobrze znamy i możemy czytać. Spychana na margines, uważana za osobę lekkich obyczajów (Byron w tej sytuacji był charyzmatycznym bawidamkiem), z racji tego, że postawiła na siebie.
Przez wieki ich historię traktowano osobno, Gordon analizuje ich relacje wspólnie, przeplatając ich życiorysy i wyszło to fantastycznie. Jestem totalnie zachwycona i chciałabym, by więcej ludzi o nich usłyszało. Bo bez takich Mary nie byłoby nas.
Przez wielki Wollstonecraft omijano w historii literatury, nie interesowano się jej dokonaniami, a bardziej poświęcano czas jej życiu prywatnemu (nieślubne dziecko z innego związku). Stała się osobistością, której teksty brano na poważnie tylko, jeżeli podpisywało jako mężczyzna. Żyła w czasach, w których matkom odbierano dziecko, wykorzystywano i krzywdzono kobiety, a i tak niewiele miały do powiedzenia. Mary obserwowała i pisała o tym, miała rewolucyjne podejście do życia małżeńskiego i do pracy kobiet w ogóle. Zwracała uwagę na to, jak nierówno dzielone są obowiązki domowe.
Jej córka Mary Shelley od narodzin podążała śladami swojej matki, inspirowała się nią, cytowała jej twórczość. Z miłości uciekła z poetą Percym Shelleyem. Tak jak matka, omijana w historii literatury, jej Frankenstein to w sumie jedynie dzieło, które tak dobrze znamy i możemy czytać. Spychana na margines, uważana za osobę lekkich obyczajów (Byron w tej sytuacji był charyzmatycznym bawidamkiem), z racji tego, że postawiła na siebie.
Przez wieki ich historię traktowano osobno, Gordon analizuje ich relacje wspólnie, przeplatając ich życiorysy i wyszło to fantastycznie. Jestem totalnie zachwycona i chciałabym, by więcej ludzi o nich usłyszało. Bo bez takich Mary nie byłoby nas.
November 23, 2017
This is such a fantastic biography that I suspect it will become my gold standard. It’s a dual biography of two well-known female intellectuals (who were also mother and daughter), Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. All I knew of either woman before reading this was her most famous book, but as it turns out they both lived fascinating – and, because they were writers, well-documented – lives. Both traveled internationally (Wollstonecraft even lived in France in the midst of its revolution), wrote extensively, and had children outside of marriage, and all this in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
This isn’t only a factual account; it brings both protagonists to life in alternating chapters (because Wollstonecraft died giving birth to Shelley, the two barely intersect), with distinct, complex and vivid personalities. And Gordon is an excellent storyteller, rendering their lives in a readable style more compelling than many novels; the end of a chapter would often leave me wanting to read just one more. The book is rich in information about the times, providing the context of these women’s lives and the lives of those around them, but despite being a history, the facts never feel inevitable; this is quite an achievement, requiring fresh and vivid storytelling. For the first 100 pages I was concerned that it would be a downer, featuring women oppressed by their gender and culture at every turn, but both women soon grow up and take control of their destinies. In the end, my only concern is that, while the book includes extensive endnotes and a bibliography, the author usually only cites a source when directly quoting someone; I wanted to know where more of the assertions about people’s feelings, in particular, came from.
Overall, this is an excellent book, and it left me curious to read both of these writers and see how my analysis of their works compares to the author’s. This would be a great choice for anyone interested in the lives of historical women; for those who don't typically read biographies, it's a perfect place to start.
This isn’t only a factual account; it brings both protagonists to life in alternating chapters (because Wollstonecraft died giving birth to Shelley, the two barely intersect), with distinct, complex and vivid personalities. And Gordon is an excellent storyteller, rendering their lives in a readable style more compelling than many novels; the end of a chapter would often leave me wanting to read just one more. The book is rich in information about the times, providing the context of these women’s lives and the lives of those around them, but despite being a history, the facts never feel inevitable; this is quite an achievement, requiring fresh and vivid storytelling. For the first 100 pages I was concerned that it would be a downer, featuring women oppressed by their gender and culture at every turn, but both women soon grow up and take control of their destinies. In the end, my only concern is that, while the book includes extensive endnotes and a bibliography, the author usually only cites a source when directly quoting someone; I wanted to know where more of the assertions about people’s feelings, in particular, came from.
Overall, this is an excellent book, and it left me curious to read both of these writers and see how my analysis of their works compares to the author’s. This would be a great choice for anyone interested in the lives of historical women; for those who don't typically read biographies, it's a perfect place to start.
April 18, 2023
Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon is a dual biography of Mary Wollstonecraft, famously the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; and her daughter Mary Shelley, who of course wrote the now iconic Frankenstein. Have I read a single thing by either of these women? Nope. Did I still love this? YES.
Romantic Outlaws is such a well-written, nuanced, and humane biography, a compassionate look at these two women and the often difficult but deeply rich lives that they led. As Gordon explains in the introduction of her book, there have been many books written about Wollstonecraft and Shelley's lives separately, but rarely have authors drawn direct links between these two women's lives: the ways in which Wollstonecraft's life and work affected her daughter, and the ways in which Shelley's life and work allows us to see her mother's from a different perspective. And throughout the course of reading this book, I just became so attached to these two women. Gordon's meticulous and well-documented research means that she is able to render these two women with the complexity and richness that they deserve; more than just giving you information about them and their lives, she makes you really care about, and feel for, them. In Gordon's hands, they aren't "figures" so much as they are people.
Another aspect of Romantic Outlaws that I also want to highlight is the way that Gordon's writing is always so attuned to the cultural, social, and political context of the historical time periods that these women lived in; a good biography is as much about its subject as it is about the historical time period that shaped and influenced that subject's life, and Romantic Outlaws is a great example of how seamlessly those two aspects can work together.
Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley were such incredible women, and Gordon's biography absolutely does them justice. I loved this book a lot and would definitely recommend it, especially if you love literary biographies.
Romantic Outlaws is such a well-written, nuanced, and humane biography, a compassionate look at these two women and the often difficult but deeply rich lives that they led. As Gordon explains in the introduction of her book, there have been many books written about Wollstonecraft and Shelley's lives separately, but rarely have authors drawn direct links between these two women's lives: the ways in which Wollstonecraft's life and work affected her daughter, and the ways in which Shelley's life and work allows us to see her mother's from a different perspective. And throughout the course of reading this book, I just became so attached to these two women. Gordon's meticulous and well-documented research means that she is able to render these two women with the complexity and richness that they deserve; more than just giving you information about them and their lives, she makes you really care about, and feel for, them. In Gordon's hands, they aren't "figures" so much as they are people.
Another aspect of Romantic Outlaws that I also want to highlight is the way that Gordon's writing is always so attuned to the cultural, social, and political context of the historical time periods that these women lived in; a good biography is as much about its subject as it is about the historical time period that shaped and influenced that subject's life, and Romantic Outlaws is a great example of how seamlessly those two aspects can work together.
Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley were such incredible women, and Gordon's biography absolutely does them justice. I loved this book a lot and would definitely recommend it, especially if you love literary biographies.
August 15, 2015
BOTW
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b064xjn1Description: Juliet Aubrey and Ellie Kendrick read Charlotte Gordon's extraordinary biography of the pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, and her novelist daughter, Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein.
Mary Wollstonecraft, famous for her polemic A Vindication on the Rights of Woman, died ten days after giving birth to her daughter who wrote one of the nineteenth century's most significant novels, Frankenstein. Though she never knew her mother, Mary Shelley was inspired and influenced by the way Wollstonecraft had lived her life, and her philosophy on freedom. Charlotte Gordon's dual biography brings together these visionary women and illuminates the many similarities between the two. Both acquired fame and notoriety through their writing, they married difficult men, had children out of wedlock and were assailed by tragedy. Above all both left legacies that continue to endure.
Looks juicy!
Episode 1: Escape and Elopement Episode 2: Writing Lives 3/5: Revolution and Notoriety 4/5: Lost Love 5/5: A New Beginning and a Tragic EndingI had no idea that Mary Shelley had been a while in Göteborg/Gothenburg
November 9, 2025
romantic outlaws is a thoroughly researched and well written examination of two extraordinary women's lives. though gordon does tend to modernize and oversimplify at times (ex. "she didn't need a man" appeared on page far more times than i would've liked it to) she does a fantastic job of portraying both mother and daughter in all their splendour and tragedy. for those interested, i cannot recommend gordon's introduction to penguin's frankenstein: the 1818 text enough. not only does it contextualize mother and daughter in the novel's narrative, it also serves well as a prologue to this book.
February 7, 2019
The bra burning feminists of the 1960’s can’t hold a candle to Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter, Mary Shelley, and their revolutionary ideals of the 1800’s. Their feminist philosophy was shared with a large circle of liberal minded friends and family - Thomas Payne, Samuel Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, William Godwin, and John and Abigail Adams, to name a few.
Mary Wollstonecraft’s philosophical writings proposed education for women, protection from marital cruelty and involuntary institutionalization, shedding of female frivolity, and a simplicity of dress. Mary Shelley lived her life based on her mother’s principals, although neither of these ladies could escape travails of the heart.
This is a revealing and in depth study of two trail blazing women who paved the way for modern women’s rights and justice.
A 4.5 star rating. 1/2 star knocked off due to a laborious evaluation of Mary Wollstonecraft’s husband’s writings after her death.
Mary Wollstonecraft’s philosophical writings proposed education for women, protection from marital cruelty and involuntary institutionalization, shedding of female frivolity, and a simplicity of dress. Mary Shelley lived her life based on her mother’s principals, although neither of these ladies could escape travails of the heart.
This is a revealing and in depth study of two trail blazing women who paved the way for modern women’s rights and justice.
A 4.5 star rating. 1/2 star knocked off due to a laborious evaluation of Mary Wollstonecraft’s husband’s writings after her death.
July 4, 2016
I listened to the audiobook, which was really well done. I had very little trouble remembering who was whom and such, though I didn't stress about remembering every single detail. It was fascinating to learn about the two Marys, how their work intersected with their lives and what unorthodox lives they led. This was overall a really, REALLY engaging dual biography and I highly recommend it.
April 3, 2019
Pierwsza taka podwójna biografia, niezwykle inspirująca opowieść o życiu matki i córki, dwóch skandalistek swojej epoki – Mary Wollstonecraft i jej córki... Mary Shelley, autorki "Frankensteina", czyli „Buntowniczki” Charlotte Gordon.
Nie znały się długo, bo zaledwie dziesięć dni. Matka marzyła o lepszym świecie dla swojej córeczki, a córka całe życie wspominała matkę. Mary Wollstonecraft i Mary Shelley, matka i córka, dwie niezwykłe kobiety, które połączył los, które były tak blisko i tak daleko jednocześnie. Mary Wolstonecraft zmarła w 1797 roku, zaledwie kilka dni po porodzie, ale jej córka całe życie pielęgnowała dziedzictwo matki, kontynuując zapoczątkowane przez nią dzieło, kierując się jej filozofią życia. O ile matka otwarcie walczyła o prawa kobiet, wydając nawet głośne „Wołanie o prawa kobiety”, to Mary Shelley poglądy matki zawierała w swojej twórczości, niemal podświadomie, a także w listach, czy w licznych komentarzach. „Buntowniczki” to ich historia – kobiet, które pragnęły miłości i niezależności, które łamały zasady, by tworzyć swoje własne, które zaskakiwały i bulwersowały, bo potrafiły decydować o samych sobie w czasach, gdy było to nie do pomyślenia. Dwie buntowniczki o wolność, która płynęła w ich krwi i motywowała do tego, by przekraczać kolejne granice.
„Buntowniczki” to dwie przeplatające się opowieści, dzieje wyjątkowych kobiet, które zaskoczą niejednego czytelnika. Charlotte Gordon stworzyła monumentalną podwójną biografię, napisaną w błyskotliwy sposób, od której nie można się oderwać, a która zainspiruje także polskich czytelników, dla których postacie Mary Wollstonecraft i Mary Shelley nie do końca miały do tej pory znaczenie. To ponadczasowa historia walki o swoje ideały, o realizowanie swoich planów i marzeń w epoce, w której nic nie było dla kobiety proste, tym bardziej dla wolnomyślicielki, której niemal całe życie miało posmak skandalu. To właśnie dlatego przez dziesięciolecia biografie matki i córki nigdy do końca nie potrafiły oddać tego, kim naprawdę były Mary Wollstonecraft i Mary Shelley. Natomiast Charlotte Gordon udało się uchwycić te portrety takimi, jakie powinny być – bez sztucznego idealizowania, bez koloryzowania. Jej „Buntowniczki” to hołd złożony dwóch pisarkom, myślicielkom, które wyprzedzały swoją epokę, ale przede wszystkim nie bały się wyrażać swoich poglądów i żyły tak, jak chciały, nawet jeśli musiały za to zapłacić swoją cenę.
To wspaniały kawał biograficznej lektury i Wielkobukowy PATRONAT, z którego jestem niezwykle dumna.
Nie znały się długo, bo zaledwie dziesięć dni. Matka marzyła o lepszym świecie dla swojej córeczki, a córka całe życie wspominała matkę. Mary Wollstonecraft i Mary Shelley, matka i córka, dwie niezwykłe kobiety, które połączył los, które były tak blisko i tak daleko jednocześnie. Mary Wolstonecraft zmarła w 1797 roku, zaledwie kilka dni po porodzie, ale jej córka całe życie pielęgnowała dziedzictwo matki, kontynuując zapoczątkowane przez nią dzieło, kierując się jej filozofią życia. O ile matka otwarcie walczyła o prawa kobiet, wydając nawet głośne „Wołanie o prawa kobiety”, to Mary Shelley poglądy matki zawierała w swojej twórczości, niemal podświadomie, a także w listach, czy w licznych komentarzach. „Buntowniczki” to ich historia – kobiet, które pragnęły miłości i niezależności, które łamały zasady, by tworzyć swoje własne, które zaskakiwały i bulwersowały, bo potrafiły decydować o samych sobie w czasach, gdy było to nie do pomyślenia. Dwie buntowniczki o wolność, która płynęła w ich krwi i motywowała do tego, by przekraczać kolejne granice.
„Buntowniczki” to dwie przeplatające się opowieści, dzieje wyjątkowych kobiet, które zaskoczą niejednego czytelnika. Charlotte Gordon stworzyła monumentalną podwójną biografię, napisaną w błyskotliwy sposób, od której nie można się oderwać, a która zainspiruje także polskich czytelników, dla których postacie Mary Wollstonecraft i Mary Shelley nie do końca miały do tej pory znaczenie. To ponadczasowa historia walki o swoje ideały, o realizowanie swoich planów i marzeń w epoce, w której nic nie było dla kobiety proste, tym bardziej dla wolnomyślicielki, której niemal całe życie miało posmak skandalu. To właśnie dlatego przez dziesięciolecia biografie matki i córki nigdy do końca nie potrafiły oddać tego, kim naprawdę były Mary Wollstonecraft i Mary Shelley. Natomiast Charlotte Gordon udało się uchwycić te portrety takimi, jakie powinny być – bez sztucznego idealizowania, bez koloryzowania. Jej „Buntowniczki” to hołd złożony dwóch pisarkom, myślicielkom, które wyprzedzały swoją epokę, ale przede wszystkim nie bały się wyrażać swoich poglądów i żyły tak, jak chciały, nawet jeśli musiały za to zapłacić swoją cenę.
To wspaniały kawał biograficznej lektury i Wielkobukowy PATRONAT, z którego jestem niezwykle dumna.
June 14, 2015
I read about this book on Guardian.com and immediately wondered where a book like this has been all of my life.
I've been a longtime fan of both Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, more so about their lives than their writing itself, though fully appreciating their writing even if I haven't always enjoyed what I read. But these two ladies, they had cojones and I think either one would have been a hoot to spend time with in their days.
As far as I know, this is the first dual biography which is a wonderful idea and I wonder why no one has done it before this. Maybe because Wollstonecraft died not long after giving birth to her daughter, so Mary Shelley grew up without ever knowing her mother on a personal level; undoubtedly historians and readers alike figure there's no real connection between the women, so a dual biography would not serve any real purpose. But that's unfair to the extreme. Gordon is clearly researched in both Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, and she put her information together to draw parallels between mother and daughter.
Occasionally the parallels felt a bit forced, but that's okay, actually, because the information in this book is incredibly fascinating to those of us who are interested in either women. Gordon wrote about their lives - what it was like to be a woman in their respective day and how neither really fit their society's expectations of what made a "good" woman - their relationships, and their writing, all in great detail. There are black-and-white images throughout the text which always make me giddy because I'm a sucker for context.
I enjoyed this book enough to keep it about a week and a half overdue from the library, so my apologies to the Carnegie Library and whoever was waiting in the queue after me to read this book. (I'll overlook the fact that you, good sir/woman, are the reason I was not able to renew the book in the first place.) This biography has inspired me to take on another reading project! I have pulled out all of the books from my shelves that are by or about Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, or any of their buddies. As always with my reading projects, this will take a while, but it will be nice to revisit Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women with a more mature eye.
I've been a longtime fan of both Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, more so about their lives than their writing itself, though fully appreciating their writing even if I haven't always enjoyed what I read. But these two ladies, they had cojones and I think either one would have been a hoot to spend time with in their days.
As far as I know, this is the first dual biography which is a wonderful idea and I wonder why no one has done it before this. Maybe because Wollstonecraft died not long after giving birth to her daughter, so Mary Shelley grew up without ever knowing her mother on a personal level; undoubtedly historians and readers alike figure there's no real connection between the women, so a dual biography would not serve any real purpose. But that's unfair to the extreme. Gordon is clearly researched in both Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, and she put her information together to draw parallels between mother and daughter.
Occasionally the parallels felt a bit forced, but that's okay, actually, because the information in this book is incredibly fascinating to those of us who are interested in either women. Gordon wrote about their lives - what it was like to be a woman in their respective day and how neither really fit their society's expectations of what made a "good" woman - their relationships, and their writing, all in great detail. There are black-and-white images throughout the text which always make me giddy because I'm a sucker for context.
I enjoyed this book enough to keep it about a week and a half overdue from the library, so my apologies to the Carnegie Library and whoever was waiting in the queue after me to read this book. (I'll overlook the fact that you, good sir/woman, are the reason I was not able to renew the book in the first place.) This biography has inspired me to take on another reading project! I have pulled out all of the books from my shelves that are by or about Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, or any of their buddies. As always with my reading projects, this will take a while, but it will be nice to revisit Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women with a more mature eye.
January 2, 2024
Don’t be dismayed by the bulk of this book, it is eminently readable. The author has produced a lively dual biography that reads almost like a novel.
Mary Wollstonecraft overcame a childhood of neglect and abuse to educate herself and become a leading intellectual of her day. Despite her fame she mostly led a tough life full of hard work, self-sacrifice, and scrambling to keep a roof over her head. I say “fame” but during her lifetime what she mostly experienced was notoriety and cruel misogynistic attacks. She was fortunate to have a few loyal friends, most notably her publisher, and her work was appreciated by a few but reviled by most. Looking back from the present day, we find it hard to imagine how scandalous her ideas were, not to mention the way she led her life, and the courage it took for her to achieve what she did.
She died prematurely of complications from childbirth, bringing into the world her daughter and namesake, Mary Godwin. The younger Mary knew her mother only through her writings but devoted her life to trying to live up to her mother’s ideals—though she often had a strange way of doing so. At sixteen she ran off with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a married man, knocking about Europe with him and producing babies who mostly died, till his wife committed suicide and they were free to marry. Unlike her mother, who put her intellectual life first and only much later backed her way into love and motherhood, the younger Mary always had to slip in her intellectual attainments around the edges of her duties as mother and lover. In that sense, her challenges were perhaps greater.
Their different choices led to very different lives, but British society found them both equally anathema. Both had to find companionship where they could, both struggled to live with head held high in the face of shunning and vicious excoriation. Both produced enduring classics—Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Charlotte Gordon tells their stories in alternating chapters, which might be confusing for readers who come to the book without a basic knowledge of their histories. Some have chosen to read all the Mary Wollstonecraft chapters first, then all the Mary Shelley chapters. I rather liked the alternation, as it highlighted both parallels and distinctions between the two—plus I find Shelley and Byron pretty tiresome people so it was nice not to have too heavy a dose of them at one sitting.
Gordon provides extensive annotation at the end of the book for those who want to check her sources, but she doesn’t use footnotes. This troubled me at first because I wasn’t sure how much of her narrative was speculation, but I came to trust her judgment. When there is genuine controversy about the facts, she pauses her narrative to behave more like a traditional biographer and present the pros and cons of the case in competent fashion. The rest of the time the book reads almost like a story, albeit one with little dislogue.
And what a story! Both women led fascinating lives personally and intellectually, and Gordon does justice to both aspects of them. She even sketches the arc of their reputations after death—passages that ought to rescue any young student from a propensity to take the views of experts too seriously. As was the case with Jane Austen, the forces of conservatism and misogyny rewrote the lives and reputations of these extraordinary women to make them fit a more acceptable, less challenging mold, and recovery of their original selves didn’t happen for a century or more.
My sense is that Gordon struggled a bit with Mary Shelley’s part of the story, and I felt she overexplained her complexities in a way that seemed defensive. Mary Wollstonecraft is more clearly heroine material, and it felt as if Gordon really wanted to make them both heroines. My niggling concern that her version of Mary Shelley is not the only possible one is what reduced my rating from five stars to four; Gordon may have succumbed a bit to the temptation to force her into a role for the sake of narrative parallelism. I can’t say that’s the case, but it felt that way from time to time.
Mary Wollstonecraft overcame a childhood of neglect and abuse to educate herself and become a leading intellectual of her day. Despite her fame she mostly led a tough life full of hard work, self-sacrifice, and scrambling to keep a roof over her head. I say “fame” but during her lifetime what she mostly experienced was notoriety and cruel misogynistic attacks. She was fortunate to have a few loyal friends, most notably her publisher, and her work was appreciated by a few but reviled by most. Looking back from the present day, we find it hard to imagine how scandalous her ideas were, not to mention the way she led her life, and the courage it took for her to achieve what she did.
She died prematurely of complications from childbirth, bringing into the world her daughter and namesake, Mary Godwin. The younger Mary knew her mother only through her writings but devoted her life to trying to live up to her mother’s ideals—though she often had a strange way of doing so. At sixteen she ran off with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a married man, knocking about Europe with him and producing babies who mostly died, till his wife committed suicide and they were free to marry. Unlike her mother, who put her intellectual life first and only much later backed her way into love and motherhood, the younger Mary always had to slip in her intellectual attainments around the edges of her duties as mother and lover. In that sense, her challenges were perhaps greater.
Their different choices led to very different lives, but British society found them both equally anathema. Both had to find companionship where they could, both struggled to live with head held high in the face of shunning and vicious excoriation. Both produced enduring classics—Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Charlotte Gordon tells their stories in alternating chapters, which might be confusing for readers who come to the book without a basic knowledge of their histories. Some have chosen to read all the Mary Wollstonecraft chapters first, then all the Mary Shelley chapters. I rather liked the alternation, as it highlighted both parallels and distinctions between the two—plus I find Shelley and Byron pretty tiresome people so it was nice not to have too heavy a dose of them at one sitting.
Gordon provides extensive annotation at the end of the book for those who want to check her sources, but she doesn’t use footnotes. This troubled me at first because I wasn’t sure how much of her narrative was speculation, but I came to trust her judgment. When there is genuine controversy about the facts, she pauses her narrative to behave more like a traditional biographer and present the pros and cons of the case in competent fashion. The rest of the time the book reads almost like a story, albeit one with little dislogue.
And what a story! Both women led fascinating lives personally and intellectually, and Gordon does justice to both aspects of them. She even sketches the arc of their reputations after death—passages that ought to rescue any young student from a propensity to take the views of experts too seriously. As was the case with Jane Austen, the forces of conservatism and misogyny rewrote the lives and reputations of these extraordinary women to make them fit a more acceptable, less challenging mold, and recovery of their original selves didn’t happen for a century or more.
My sense is that Gordon struggled a bit with Mary Shelley’s part of the story, and I felt she overexplained her complexities in a way that seemed defensive. Mary Wollstonecraft is more clearly heroine material, and it felt as if Gordon really wanted to make them both heroines. My niggling concern that her version of Mary Shelley is not the only possible one is what reduced my rating from five stars to four; Gordon may have succumbed a bit to the temptation to force her into a role for the sake of narrative parallelism. I can’t say that’s the case, but it felt that way from time to time.
December 3, 2015
I've never been much for lengthy non-fiction tomes. I can count on one hand the number of biographies I've made it through, and yet, I'm obsessed with history - with the stories and human accounts, not the dry, sterile statistics. However, I was determined to at least skim through this book, because, after just finishing Frankenstein, I've become obsessed with Mary Shelley and her obvious genius. I've always been a poetry lover, but I have come late to the appreciation of the Romantic poets. I've often felt that they were silly, exhausting try-hards who use too many exclamation points as if everything in Nature was part of a Dick and Jane story: "Look! Breathe! Run naked through the daffodils!" Especially Wordsworth, who I still mainly appreciate for his revolutionizing ideas about imaginative writing (and his great capacity for walking...100,000 miles in his lifetime? Seriously?). I do like Coleridge, but admittedly I first liked him because he wrote "Kubla Khan" while stoned and the idea just tickles me pink. My favorite, if I had to choose, would, of course be Lord Byron, because, besides the self-obsessed, hypersexuality, he's FREAKING LORD BYRON! I have come to love Keats for the beauty of his language (and the heartbreak: "When I have Fears That I May Cease To Be" - seriously? Craaaaack! my heart is breaking!) But I honestly always thought Percy Bysshe (how the hell do you even say that?) Shelley was an asshole. His getting kicked out of Oxford for publishing a pamphlet celebrating atheism seems so overly dramatic and staged: give me a break. However - and here I've gone and done it myself - all of these MEN have completely overshadowed the true geniuses and revolutionaries of the 18th and 19th centuries: Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. These women are incredible, and without them, I do not believe that much of the social reform ideas would have occurred (thanks, M. Wollstonecraft) and I do not believe that much of the imaginative, science-fiction literature and romantic ideas would have impacted what they have done (thanks, M. Shelley). And I wouldn't know any of this were it not for the exquisite writing and gripping storytelling and meticulous research of Charlotte Gordon. This book is now one of my very favorite books. I've always thought of myself as a feminist, but never a rage-against-the-patriarchy feminist, until now. After reading the frustrating, agonizing story of what these two women went through simply attempting to be true to themselves and their principles, I wanted to rage and tear down pillars and wreak havoc. I'm grateful to them for their bravery and ashamed that I, too, have bought into the commonly held beliefs about them, especially the unbelievably amazing Mary Wollstonecraft: what a life! What stories! I love every page of this beautiful biography and am so grateful to have read it. It has enriched my insights into the body of work of all the writers and philosophers of the time and has helped me understand that time in history in a way that I had not understood it before. For much of the book I was weeping and raging as I was telling Paul about it and he kept apologizing to me for "men- historically." Poor guy :). Ever since finished the book, I've had a favorite poem running through my head, Maya Angelou's poem "Phenomenal Woman" -
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
’Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
’Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
October 29, 2023
Kawał dobrej roboty. Biografia napisana tak, że czyta się jak powieść. Ale ile nerwów tej lekturze towarzyszy…
March 29, 2024
Incredible wow. I've never gotten through a 500 page book that fast. Two women, mother and daughter, both changing the world in ways that tangibly affect us now and they were both not acknowledged decently in their own times because they were women, and the men in their lives worked against them. Especially Godwin. The last few chapters on Wollstonecraft made me furious. Stupid, sanctimonious, 40-year-old virgin until Wollstonecraft had the charity to deflower him. Not to say anything about Mary Shelley, but her dad is terrible and totally missed the point. Percy Shelley also missed the entire point of Mary Shelley and also concepts of responsibility. No, you can't continue living as free-wheelingly as you did when there are children involved. And Wollstonecraft and Shelley are both in thrall to their own fertility. Nothing says Vindication of the Rights of Women like getting pregnant and carrying a fragile baby to term and then trying to keep it alive while the men in your life bugger off and send you to Norway to find some avaricious sea captain. At least she wrote a stunning book out of it. I've read that one but I probably should have studied it more closely. As far as buggering off to Italy where everything's cheaper and the landlords aren't scandalized by the mere thought of you, meh. Mary Shelley coped admirably and did incredible work under shocking circumstances. After she wrote Frankenstein, her incest book could have been a bestseller, but her dad desk-drawered it because it was scandalous. This book was great. It alternates between mother and daughter, with the most Shelley time spent on her years with Percy Bysshe. Both women lived incredible lives and wrote incredible works and the literary analysis is short but spot on. From Vindication of the Rights of Men to Mary Shelley's last novel that I downloaded in Librivox, everything is given ample attention and the author has done an incredible job with all the articles the women wrote throughout their lives that breadcrumb the philosophies to their major works. I loved this book so much. The tragedy is unspeakable, but everything overall is fantastic. These women! This book!
September 15, 2024
The book of my life. (czyt. między 14.09 a 5.11.2019).
Warto rzucić wszystko, co
można i czytać Buntowniczki Charlotte Gordon.
Gruba, ale sama się czyta: tłumaczenie napisane jest przepięknym i oszałamiająco plastycznym językiem, poza tym styl przejrzysty, kompozycja logiczna i te z nikim nieporównywalne bohaterki!
Charlotte musi być duchową prapraprawnuczką siłaczki Wollstonecraft, że z taką empatią odmalowała portret tej zdumiewającej KOBIETY.
Nie pamiętam książki, w której byłoby tyle mądrości, wrażliwości i takiego wsparcia dla kobiet.
Biblia Kobiecej Siły.
Czytajcie!
Warto rzucić wszystko, co
można i czytać Buntowniczki Charlotte Gordon.
Gruba, ale sama się czyta: tłumaczenie napisane jest przepięknym i oszałamiająco plastycznym językiem, poza tym styl przejrzysty, kompozycja logiczna i te z nikim nieporównywalne bohaterki!
Charlotte musi być duchową prapraprawnuczką siłaczki Wollstonecraft, że z taką empatią odmalowała portret tej zdumiewającej KOBIETY.
Nie pamiętam książki, w której byłoby tyle mądrości, wrażliwości i takiego wsparcia dla kobiet.
Biblia Kobiecej Siły.
Czytajcie!
October 1, 2023
This is truly one of the best biographies I have ever read, and I have been entertained the whole way through.
And in the eternal words of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, ‘The memory of Mary Wollstonecraft has always been the pride and delight of my life.’
And in the eternal words of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, ‘The memory of Mary Wollstonecraft has always been the pride and delight of my life.’
February 13, 2015
These comments are based on an advanced reader copy provided by NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for making it available.
“Without knowing the history of the era, the difficulties Wollstonecraft and Shelley faced are largely invisible, their bravery incomprehensible. Even those who revere mother and daughter do not fully realize how profoundly they challenged the moral code of the day. Yet both women were what Wollstonecraft termed ‘outlaws.’ Not only did they write world-changing books, they broke from the strictures that governed women’s conduct, not once but time and again. Their refusal to bow down, to be quiet and subservient, to apologize and hide, makes their lives as memorable as the words they left behind,” writes Charlotte Gordon, author of Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley. Gordon’s project is to put mother and daughter in their historical contexts and then, in uncovering their stories, to draw parallels between these women, their works, and the revolutionary ideas they embraced.
Gordon traces the lives of Wollstonecraft and Shelley not in chronological order, but in alternating chapters; in this way, readers can see comparisons and contrasts in their lives at every stage of development, education, and literary accomplishment. This proves quite effective. The sections on Wollstonecraft’s “foreign correspondent” work covering the French Revolution and Terror with great success and at considerable personal risk are particularly riveting. Perhaps most intriguing here, though, is Gordon’s argument that both Wollstonecraft’s and Shelley’s professional reputations suffered greatly and for far too long from the well-intentioned but ultimately disastrous biographies written about them after their death by loved ones (namely Wollstonecraft’s husband and Shelley’s daughter-in-law).
The author offers a solid analysis of how the ideas that Wollstonecraft and Shelley espoused – about reason and education, rights and responsibilities – not only dictated how they tried to live their lives (against tremendous odds and with mixed but ultimately impressive success), but also permeated their non-fictional and fictional works, translations, and editorial efforts. Perhaps Frankenstein’s central message about shirked responsibility, which is so relevant to Gordon’s larger thesis, receives somewhat short shrift here due to the novel’s widespread popularity, but the scales are balanced by Gordon’s insights into lesser-known publications.
Gordon is at her best when she responds to ongoing scholarly debates. Her answers are well researched and convincing. For example, her proposed solution to the mystery of the infant Elena Adelaide Shelley registered in Naples as Percy’s child not only fits the facts better than previous theories, but it also follows what we know of Mary’s lifelong and principled commitment to helping unwed mothers and other legally and economically vulnerable women. In another case, Gordon’s comparison of Percy’s involvement in editing Frankenstein to Mary’s involvement in editing his Poetical Works puts the couple’s professional achievements in a most instructive light.
In short, Gordon takes both women and their ideas seriously, and she offers compelling evidence why readers today should do so, as well. Highly recommended for those interested in human rights and liberty; intellectual history and biography; Enlightenment, Revolutionary, and Romantic thought; educational theory; and, of course, literature.
“Without knowing the history of the era, the difficulties Wollstonecraft and Shelley faced are largely invisible, their bravery incomprehensible. Even those who revere mother and daughter do not fully realize how profoundly they challenged the moral code of the day. Yet both women were what Wollstonecraft termed ‘outlaws.’ Not only did they write world-changing books, they broke from the strictures that governed women’s conduct, not once but time and again. Their refusal to bow down, to be quiet and subservient, to apologize and hide, makes their lives as memorable as the words they left behind,” writes Charlotte Gordon, author of Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley. Gordon’s project is to put mother and daughter in their historical contexts and then, in uncovering their stories, to draw parallels between these women, their works, and the revolutionary ideas they embraced.
Gordon traces the lives of Wollstonecraft and Shelley not in chronological order, but in alternating chapters; in this way, readers can see comparisons and contrasts in their lives at every stage of development, education, and literary accomplishment. This proves quite effective. The sections on Wollstonecraft’s “foreign correspondent” work covering the French Revolution and Terror with great success and at considerable personal risk are particularly riveting. Perhaps most intriguing here, though, is Gordon’s argument that both Wollstonecraft’s and Shelley’s professional reputations suffered greatly and for far too long from the well-intentioned but ultimately disastrous biographies written about them after their death by loved ones (namely Wollstonecraft’s husband and Shelley’s daughter-in-law).
The author offers a solid analysis of how the ideas that Wollstonecraft and Shelley espoused – about reason and education, rights and responsibilities – not only dictated how they tried to live their lives (against tremendous odds and with mixed but ultimately impressive success), but also permeated their non-fictional and fictional works, translations, and editorial efforts. Perhaps Frankenstein’s central message about shirked responsibility, which is so relevant to Gordon’s larger thesis, receives somewhat short shrift here due to the novel’s widespread popularity, but the scales are balanced by Gordon’s insights into lesser-known publications.
Gordon is at her best when she responds to ongoing scholarly debates. Her answers are well researched and convincing. For example, her proposed solution to the mystery of the infant Elena Adelaide Shelley registered in Naples as Percy’s child not only fits the facts better than previous theories, but it also follows what we know of Mary’s lifelong and principled commitment to helping unwed mothers and other legally and economically vulnerable women. In another case, Gordon’s comparison of Percy’s involvement in editing Frankenstein to Mary’s involvement in editing his Poetical Works puts the couple’s professional achievements in a most instructive light.
In short, Gordon takes both women and their ideas seriously, and she offers compelling evidence why readers today should do so, as well. Highly recommended for those interested in human rights and liberty; intellectual history and biography; Enlightenment, Revolutionary, and Romantic thought; educational theory; and, of course, literature.
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