My Goodreads review: Romantic Outlaws

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

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I can't comment on the scholarship of this one -- I listened on Audible & had no access to any notes the book may have offered. However, I finished it feeling much more informed about the lives of two remarkable women I've been meaning to learn more about for years. My exposure to Wollstonecraft's writing was limited to (portions of!) A Vindication of the Rights of Women back in college, & I've read nothing of Mary Shelley's beyond Frankenstein. Bad, bad recovering English major . . .

This double biography is lively -- maybe a bit sensational, but fully justified by the facts -- & entertaining, and Susan Lyons offers a satisfyingly plummy narrative voice. Anyone hoping to retain a good opinion of either Shelley (the poet) or Byron might want to look elsewhere, however. Like her mother before her, Mary Shelley had enough trouble with both men & money to supply material for a couple of country albums! There is also the very real question of women living free lives before reliable birth control, & Gordon's work doesn't whitewash those details either. Nor does she make her subjects into feminist saints who never made bad life decisions or wronged another woman. They were highly gifted, but very human, people.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in women's literary history, or British lit in general.









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