In Search of Mary: The Mother of all Journeys

by Bee Rowlatt

Toddler in tow, Bee Rowlatt embarks on an extraordinary journey in search of the life and legacy of the first celebrity feminist: Mary Wollstonecraft. From the wild coasts of Norway to a naked re-birthing in California, via the blood-soaked streets of revolutionary Paris, Bee learns what drove her hero on and what's been won and lost over the centuries in the battle for equality. On this biographical treasure hunt she finds herself consulting a witch, a porn star, a quiet Norwegian archivist and the tenants of a blighted council estate in Leeds--getting much more than she bargained for. In her quest to find a new balance between careers and babies, Bee also discovers the importance of celebrating the radiant power of love in all our lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel, Feminism, Biography, Book Club

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 2015

Reviews

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book much more interesting than I expected.

In the first section, the author visits Scandinavia in the footsteps of Mary Wollstonecraft, whose Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark I have just read.

In the second section she follows Mary to Paris. Some of this section links to Richard Holmes ' Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer. Since I have also read this book, this added to the interest of this section.

Bee Rowlatt turns to California after this, and I also found this a good section.

I found the book well written and interesting, with a nice balance between personal information and the sections relating to Mary Wollstonecraft.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Nearly 3.5) A BBC journalist and mother of four sets out, baby in tow, to trace the steps of Mary Wollstonecraft in Norway and France. A follow-up trip to California is a little off-topic, but allows Rowlatt to survey the development of feminism over the last few centuries. This isn’t as successful a bibliomemoir as many I’ve read in recent years, such as Rebecca Mead’s My Life in Middlemarch or Samantha Ellis’s How to Be a Heroine, but for readers interested in engaging in the ongoing debate about how women can balance work life with motherhood, and especially for any women who have attempted traveling with children, it’s a fun, sassy travelogue.

See my full review at The Bookbag.

[Tracey Agnew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mary Wollstonecraft has existed at the periphery of my consciousness for many years and so I approached this book with some excitement - I was finally going to get to know her! Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. The book is OK, but only if you want to understand Bee Rowlatt rather than Mary Wollstonecraft. There was a tiny strand of feminism, but this was more mumsnet than the Vindication of the Rights of Women. Rowlatt seemed at a loss to understand why feminism wasn't seen as relevant to the lives of working-class women - given the tone of this book, I totally understand why. The phrase that kept coming to mind reading this was 'check your privilege'
Rowlatt managed to get a grant to fund some of this trip and for that alone she deserves praise - it took real balls to dress up this self indulgent travelogue as worthwhile research

[Sheena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to like this but by the final section I found myself quite unsympathetic to the author. I laughed at the eco sexual garden and could not really see how this linked to any greater understanding of Wollstonecraft or femininism. Bizarre, self indulgent and pointless.
The first section was interesting and did contribute something to the subject - though dragging the baby along seemed just silly. Paris in the modern age and Paris during the terror? Really?
However, I have decided to read more about Mary.

[Claiborne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably 3.5. There are some real gems in here - sections I wanted to highlight and earmark - but then other times I grew a bit bored or couldn't see the point. It's like the author got very close to some amazing ah-ha moments, but didn't quite get there. I liked the book, I will recommend it to other mothers, but I wish it had been a little bit more...

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I had a book that I loved enough to read over and over again and even quote passages from like Bee does of Wollstonecraft's book.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected this book would make me want to read Wollstonecraft. Alas, it did not. It did, however, make me want to travel to Norway.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

A truly facile examination of the topic.

[Megha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea a lot more than the execution. I feel like it tried covering its bases by asking some good questions, but never really getting around to exploring or answering them.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle for this book is 'The Mother of All Journeys' which is only partly true. Although Bee does travel with her son Will to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France and the United States there is so much more to this read.

Bee has read Mary Wollstonecraft's book 'Letter's Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark and wants to see if Wollstonecraft has had any effect on these countries. Bee then travels to France where Wollstonecraft spent time during the French Revolution and then moves on to considering America and the effects of neo-feminism and how it affects the US today. Bee cites Wollstonecraft's books several times while tracing her footsteps from 'The Letters' which make interesting reading and ends by saying that Wollstonecraft although the first feminist did 'not wish [women] to have power over men, but over themselves'. Bee ends with the thought that she 'can identify as a post-binary, non-gender ecosexual right now. I may well shift along the continuum this evening or next week' which all makes sense once you have read the American section.

This is a very interesting and thought provoking book and is well worth the effort as a personal read and as a book group read. As you would expect when Mary Wollstonecraft is under consideration there is a lot that can be discussed and I became interested in her through spending a week at university studying her and her philosophical aspects. This was an interesting addition to my studies.

[Mary Latela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gutsy Adventurer Searches and Finds Something Wonderful! Mary E. Latela

Bee Rowlatt is a gifted young author, a mother with a passion for life, and a love of the incredible Mary Wollstonecraft, feminist of the late 1700s. Bee magically makes history alive, as she retraces Mary's journey through Norway, Sweden, and onto France. Wollstonecraft is not simply a sepia photograph of a severe looking woman. She spent her short life confronting inequality in her time, and we readers see in Bee and her toddler son who accompanies her that the feminist struggle is still raging in many settings. Bee will cause you to laugh, cry, shake your head in disbelief. And the quirky people she meets range from the smitten male collector of all things Mary, through the street women, and the new-age eco-sexual set. I was impressed and inspired when Bee reads "the rest of the book" and learns about her hero and about herself. She returns home stronger and more gifted in her communication. This is an author to watch and enjoy. Bravo!

[London Literary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bee Rowlatt sets out to explore what it means to be a feminist and a mother using the huge model of Mary Wollstonecraft--both her life travels and philosophy-- as a road map. This book reaches into multiple categories: a travelogue, a literary exploration, biography, autobiography, narrative journalism...what makes it work is Bee's exhaustive energy and ability to laugh at absurdities--even when she is laughing at herself. The work is driven by the question of how Mary Wollstonecraft's vision would fit in today's world, more specifically in how mothers must negotiate the extraordinary balance of work, parenting and healthy adult living. There is no simple answer, of course, but Rowlatt's method is to explore the question experientially--which makes for lively reading. In Search of Mary has motivated me to dip back into Wollsonecraft's writings, to pay greater attention to my almost-grown-up child, to travel (especially to Norway!) and to keep talking with folks about the challenges to our humanity that we all share.

[Aria · Rating 1 out of 5]

- Full disclosure: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. -

I wanted to like this. While worse books exist, for sure, I could not get into this. In simple terms, it was dull. I like the idea, and the author seems interesting enough, but the book just fell flat. Am really not sure how it could have been fixed. I stopped somewhere b/w page 70 and 80. Tried skimming past that, b/c I wanted to give the book a fair shake, but I just couldn't get any further. I will pass this book on, though. It wasn't so awful as to toss in the bin, and someone else might enjoy it, but I just did not give a crap what the next mode of transportation was going to be. I decided to leave them on whatever boat they were on this time, and wave good-bye.

[Karen's World · Rating 5 out of 5]

The publisher sent me this book to read and I am very pleased he did as again it was a different style of book so not in my comfort zone. Bee Rowlatt is a fantastic author as you really felt you were travelling with her on her journey discovering about the first celebrity feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. To undertake a voyage like this with a young baby is no mean feat while discovering the balance between careers and babies. Not forgetting the amount of love we have in our lives if we open up to it. Great book, wonderful story and a must read for all ages.

[Cass · Rating 1 out of 5]

Excited for this one. It started really well. Then I felt jolted around between it being about Mary, about the author, or about the author's child.

Reminds me a lot of how I felt about that Julia Child movie, the one which was about a woman recreating all the recipes for a blog. Too busy being something that wasn't working.

I abandoned mid-way.

(apologies to the author, as I quite respect her).

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lively and inspiring book. Feminism, high leg kicks, cinnamon buns and daring women all rolled into a page turning classic. I recommend this book to everyone.

[Heather]

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-3565...

[Kerri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ha! Finished. Didn't think I'd make it. Started off a nice idea but way over reached. Would like to more about the author and her thoughts rather than she just focusing on other people.

[✿Claire✿ · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise sounded really interesting but it turned out to be a tedious book.

[Dana Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful, funny, inspiring!

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book went from boring to stupid. It was a journey.

Firstly, Bee Rowlatt sets off to follow Mary Wollstonecraft's journey to Scandinavia to track down a sea captain who stole her revolutionary lover's silver. Good premise. Mary Wollstonecraft brought her baby (her older baby, not Mary Shelley) to Scandinavia so Bee Rowlatt brings her baby, which makes travel harder. But traveling from Britain to Sweden to Norway still isn't that hard in the 2010s. Where Wollstonecraft travelled by post but there are not trains, Rowlatt solves her problem by renting a car. I started reading Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, and Mary Wollstonecraft can write circles around Bee Rowlatt but she is less forthcoming about the details of her own life. Rowlatt's interpretation was helpful. Wollstonecraft can't stop negging Sweden. Rowlatt loves both Norway and Sweden. She meets some nice people. The bus has a child seat. She kills time in the places where Wollstonecraft killed time. She rides on a boat with another Wollstonecraft enthusiast. One wonders how long she can drag this trip out, because from the first few pages, it is a stretch. And then, halfway through the book, her trip to Norway is finally over, and one wonders what could possible be next. France!

In France, Rowlatt learns about the French Revolution and starts asking questions like, "How could the revolutionaries believe in the rights of man but not the rights of women and slaves?" Umm... Then her baby gets loud and she has to stop interviewing the esteemed academic whose time she is wasting. Don't bring your baby on interviews! Every interview in this book gets spoiled by the baby. Rowlatt realizes that Wollstonecraft had a nanny. Rowlatt has a nanny. Is Rowlatt exploiting her children's nanny by employing her? A scion of feminism whose time Rowlatt is wasting explains that it's okay to employ women as nannies as long as the conditions of employment aren't exploitative. Breakthroughs! Rowlatt learns that poverty exists. Rowlatt tries to define feminism. Rowlatt ends up in California asking second wave feminists dumb questions and letting them hold her baby. She reflects on Wollstonecraft's passage on modesty in Vindication and makes it clear that she thinks all modesty is sartorial. She locks her baby in a room. She has sex with a. tree. In the end, Rowlatt wraps it all up with a bow, still gobsmacked that some women are poor. Bee Rowlatt is shockingly naive and no one should have let her write the three books she's apparently written about feminism. She got a grant for this?

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in a recommendation/comment in The Wild Year by Jen Benson. Both books contain mothers and babies traveling on quests. In Search of Mary, BR seeks out locales or attitudes that Mary Wollstonecraft wrote of in her 1796 book Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Wollstonecraft was an early feminist or human rights activist and traveled to Sweden and Norway with her infant in search of lost silver belonging to her almost-husband in France.

Bee R travels to Norway, France (where MW lived with her partner and where her baby was born), and N California to speak with second wave feminists, witches, porn stars (Annie Sprinkle), and more in her search for new feminist thinking and thoughts on writing/traveling as a mother. She visits with author Jean Hegland. Bee R quotes Mary W throughout who urges readers to "Aquire sufficient fortitude to pursue your own happiness."

I initially thought this quest might be a far fetched, but enjoyed it thoroughly.


Internet archive

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I expected to enjoy this book, thinking it would be a witty, accessible romp through the life of Mary Wollstonecraft: pleasant, feminist, vaguely educational. What I didn't expect was the absolute gut-punch it gave me - huge pangs of recognition both of the author's ideas and with Mary W herself. This is one of those books where the author takes your vague thoughts and articulates them perfectly, followed by an insight you hadn't quite formulated yet. It's wry, accessible and human (as, it seems, was Mary herself). As a new mum it made me feel.. full... of ideas, of emotions, of contradictions, but not panicked by all of that. And, it's the first book in years I've read with a pen in hand, whole passages underlined with 'yes!', 'all of this' and 'read these'. Can't recommend this enough.

[Sara Carey Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was as interesting read, with respect to looking into Mary Wollstonecraft's history (if you don't already know that much about her), but it is not a biography. I was not really sure what genre this would fit under, and I couldn't really grasp the premise of the book in the first place. However, maybe that was the point. Like feminism means different things to different individuals, this book could have a different purpose based upon who reads it. It is humorous and definitely makes you want to travel, and in my opinion raised some interesting questions about being a woman.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of our book group reads with very mixed scores, none especially high. I was anticipating an interesting read around Mary Wollstonecraft and feminism but ended up feeling quite disappointed and frustrated with it. Rowlatt raises and touches on many feminist issues but I felt none of them was addressed in any depth, and I got very bored with Will being constantly 'scooped up'. A book of promise which didn't quite deliver.

[Iona · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘So many other worlds are all happening at the same time- you can take your pick- but there’s one thing they have in common. It’s that people are basically better than you expect. They are kinder,more willing to share and much funnier than I ever hoped.’

A wonderfully joyful read at a time when the world seems so dark.

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chasing women's issues
In Norway and Paris
And in San Francisco--
With baby in tow.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been a worthwhile exploration into the intersections of motherhood and feminism, with the life of Mary Wollstonecraft serving as a catalyst. Instead, it is a patchy travelogue by a suburban white mother who has a tenuous grasp of her privilege (though she does address it).

[Felicity Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

A perfect read given that March celebrates the International Women's Day and whilst I'm pretty much au fait with the likes of Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Davison I know next to nothing about Mary Wollstonecraft, the 'Mary' of the title, in whose footsteps the author followed ... sort of.

An OK read, somewhat self indulgent and perhaps more entertaining as a travelogue, but OK.

My main gripes?

Written in three parts, the first is set in Scandinavia, the second, Paris, the third? The third .... California? Hmm! Really?

I felt that, if not exactly knowing more about her, I certainly came away understanding a lot more about the admittedly affluent and privileged Bee Rowlatt and little more about Mary.

Whilst the book touched on many 'feminist' issues (not least of which 'how the feminist perspective accommodates motherhood'), it never quite 'answered' them or at least not in any great depth, leaving me to wonder if perhaps the author had (to use one of my nana's expressions) bitten off more than she could chew; that she wasn't such an expert on Mary as to give (let alone make) any real sense of her life.

The two things to recommend it?

The differing dialogues (that of the author and reader and that of the author and Mary) make this an interesting introduction to Mary. If nothing else it certainly made me eager to know more about her.

Read as a lone reader it was fine but, I think, to read it as a book club read will add a whole other dimension. I'm certainly looking forward to discovering what the others made of it.

Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper

[Melanie Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did this book make me want to know more about Mary Wollstonecraft? Yes... However, the writing is generally not good - I thought her best writing was her observations about Will, her son, and on the experience of motherhood. I really didn't enjoy the American section - it seemed only tenuously relevant. However, I respect Bee Rowlatt for trying to articulate her own feminist context - white, upper middle class, European - and its choices / dilemmnas - the book would have been more interesting if she had said more about this/ been more analytical.