NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE SEATTLE TIMESThis groundbreaking dual biography brings to life a pioneering English feminist and the daughter she never knew. Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley have each been the subject of numerous biographies, yet no one has ever examined their lives in one book—until now. In Romantic Outlaws, … now. In Romantic Outlaws, Charlotte Gordon reunites the trailblazing author who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and the Romantic visionary who gave the world Frankenstein—two courageous women who should have shared their lives, but instead shared a powerful literary and feminist legacy.
In 1797, less than two weeks after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft died, and a remarkable life spent pushing against the boundaries of society’s expectations for women came to an end. But another was just beginning. Wollstonecraft’s daughter Mary was to follow a similarly audacious path. Both women had passionate relationships with several men, bore children out of wedlock, and chose to live in exile outside their native country. Each in her own time fought against the injustices women faced and wrote books that changed literary history.
The private lives of both Marys were nothing less than the stuff of great Romantic drama, providing fabulous material for Charlotte Gordon, an accomplished historian and a gifted storyteller. Taking readers on a vivid journey across revolutionary France and Victorian England, she seamlessly interweaves the lives of her two protagonists in alternating chapters, creating a book that reads like a richly textured historical novel. Gordon also paints unforgettable portraits of the men in their lives, including the mercurial genius Percy Shelley, the unbridled libertine Lord Byron, and the brilliant radical William Godwin.
“Brave, passionate, and visionary, they broke almost every rule there was to break,” Gordon writes of Wollstonecraft and Shelley. A truly revelatory biography, Romantic Outlaws reveals the defiant, creative lives of this daring mother-daughter pair who refused to be confined by the rigid conventions of their era.
Praise for Romantic Outlaws
“[An] impassioned dual biography . . . Gordon, alternating between the two chapter by chapter, binds their lives into a fascinating whole. She shows, in vivid detail, how mother influenced daughter, and how the daughter’s struggles mirrored the mother’s.”—The Boston Globe
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These brilliant and iconoclastic women embraced ideals that made them social outcasts. They fell hard for men who broke their hearts. They both spent time as outcast, single mothers of illegitimate children. They believed–gasp–that women were equal to men in intelligence and potential; they eschewed the marriage market that sold women’s love for four-in-hand carriages and a large pin allowance. They actually believed that women should work and earn their own support–they were against marriage–and they believed they had found soul-mates with whom they could share spiritual, intellectual, and sexual love
I appreciated Gordon’s setting them in context of the shifting cultural background, from Enlightenment, through the French Revolution, to the flowering of the Romantic era, and finally against the Victorian age. The book is well illustrated throughout with portraits of all the major players. I didn’t have to Goggle them! The book was intellectual stimulating and told the stories of two great romances. It’s the whole package.
I found this to be a very informative and engaging biography of two Marys. Both were brilliant writers and philosophers who paved the way for women to be recognized as independent thinkers capable of great things. Unfortunately, history has relegated them be one-hit wonders. Mary Shelley as the author of Frankenstein, and Mary Wollstonecraft as Mary Shelley’s mother.
That does these women a great disservice. Both were independent thinkers willing to face the wrath of society in order to live their lives in the way they wanted and to change society’s thinking. They were complex women who refused to conform. Neither believed in marriage or monogamy, but both had their hearts broken by unfaithful lovers. Charlotte Gordon weaves a colorful story that does not paint the men in their lives in a flattering color. She also illustrates the complex relationships they had with both men and women. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
My one nit is that the story jumps back and forth between the two Marys and it is sometimes hard to tell which story you’re in, especially in the audio version if you miss the quick name at the beginning of each chapter.
This is one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in the last few years. A thoroughly readable and engaging account of two clever, original and fascinating women – Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Can’t praise it highly enough.
I learned a lot about Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter, Mary Godwin Shelley, in this duo biography. It was well worth reading; however, I got tired of the structure, which alternated chapters about Mary W. and Mary S. The alternating chapters followed the life of each woman, and it was sometimes difficult to remember what had happened in each one’s life two chapters back. I may be wrong, but I tend to think that following Mary W.’s life straight through, and then Mary S.’s life, might work out easier for readers. The author does include insightful material on the literary reputations of both women in the years following their deaths, and this might be discussed after the narratives of both of their lives.
I found it a bit confusing with going back and forth between the two lives of mother and daughter with alternating chapters. I would have preferred to read all about Mary Wolstonecraft, the mother, and then read the story of Mary Shelley. So much of Mary Shelley’s life was influenced by her mother even though she never knew her mother.
Found this to be very informative and has motivated me to read/reread some of the writings referenced.
These two Mary’s had such difficult lives, but it was still inspiring to learn how they fared during times when women had few rights. Sometimes it was difficult to remember which Mary I was reading about because the author would alternate chapters. Good historical read.
This is a must read for any woman who has ever railed against the limitations imposed by society.
Fascinating!
It was exactly what I expected – an incredible story about two amazing women.