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jilliannewrites's review against another edition
3.0
This book was sent to me by Pen and Sword Books in exchange for an honest review.
For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. I really enjoy Pen and Sword’s “broad overview” style books—they’re quick reads that cover a lot of material in a fairly short book. Trailblazing Women of the Georgian Era: The Eighteenth Century Struggle for Female Success in a Man’s World by Mike Rendell fits into this category.
In his well-written biography, Rendell uses four categories for the 17 women covered in the book: Arts and Literature, The Scientific World, Business and Commerce, and Reformers and Educationalists. He covered three women in each category except for Business where seven biographies are featured. I felt like of the four categories, the Business one was the weakest, even with seven women featured. Most of these women inherited their businesses from their husbands. Which… does that make a woman a trailblazer? I’m not sure.
With that being said, the other sections were wonderful. I especially enjoyed the biographies on Fanny Burney, Sarah Siddons, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (definitely going to be reading more about her), Hannah Moore, Elizabeth Fry, and, of course, Mary Wollstonecraft. Chapters are a good length and many of the featured biographies were fascinating.
With all of that being said, I was genuinely alarmed by the sex-shamey bit about Restoration playwright Aphra Behn: “She wrote not so much about love as about sex, whether heterosexual, lesbian, or gay. In doing so it can be argued that she helped set back the cause of other female writers by a hundred years.”
If the content of her writing was the real issue, then the sexuality-themed words of male writers of the day should also have been held to the same standard, which, of course, they were not. Perhaps the author shouldn’t have suggested so lightly that a “trailblazing woman” should censor herself and keep her craft more in line. That suggestion kind of goes against the whole thread of this book. These women broke the rules and slowly helped make lives better and freer for women. Although not of the Georgian era, Behn should be treated with the same respect.
For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. I really enjoy Pen and Sword’s “broad overview” style books—they’re quick reads that cover a lot of material in a fairly short book. Trailblazing Women of the Georgian Era: The Eighteenth Century Struggle for Female Success in a Man’s World by Mike Rendell fits into this category.
In his well-written biography, Rendell uses four categories for the 17 women covered in the book: Arts and Literature, The Scientific World, Business and Commerce, and Reformers and Educationalists. He covered three women in each category except for Business where seven biographies are featured. I felt like of the four categories, the Business one was the weakest, even with seven women featured. Most of these women inherited their businesses from their husbands. Which… does that make a woman a trailblazer? I’m not sure.
With that being said, the other sections were wonderful. I especially enjoyed the biographies on Fanny Burney, Sarah Siddons, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (definitely going to be reading more about her), Hannah Moore, Elizabeth Fry, and, of course, Mary Wollstonecraft. Chapters are a good length and many of the featured biographies were fascinating.
With all of that being said, I was genuinely alarmed by the sex-shamey bit about Restoration playwright Aphra Behn: “She wrote not so much about love as about sex, whether heterosexual, lesbian, or gay. In doing so it can be argued that she helped set back the cause of other female writers by a hundred years.”
If the content of her writing was the real issue, then the sexuality-themed words of male writers of the day should also have been held to the same standard, which, of course, they were not. Perhaps the author shouldn’t have suggested so lightly that a “trailblazing woman” should censor herself and keep her craft more in line. That suggestion kind of goes against the whole thread of this book. These women broke the rules and slowly helped make lives better and freer for women. Although not of the Georgian era, Behn should be treated with the same respect.
camillalice's review against another edition
4.0
I had to request this book as it was right up my alley. That was quite an interesting read for me as I hadn't heard of quite a lot of the women featured in this book. It's a nice collection of short biographies, perfect for an introduction. Trailblazing Women is also enriched with pictures and quotations from primary sources.
I wasn't bothered by the fact that the author is male. Rendell clearly has done his research and done it well, and apart from the awkward conclusion, you can't really tell his gender by the way he writes and he is sympathetic to the struggles of these women.
Now, the conclusion is a but awkward by the implication that one of the reasons for the oppression of women in the past is the fact that they didn't try to change the status quo. While it was true for some women, of lot of them did try to change things. But given the whole tone of the book, I believe that it was just an awkward way of wording his thoughts and I've chosen to just ignore it. Do not let that deter you from reading the book as you would be missing out.
Disclaimer - I received a free digital copy of this book courtesy of Pen and Sword History in exchange for an honest review.
I wasn't bothered by the fact that the author is male. Rendell clearly has done his research and done it well, and apart from the awkward conclusion, you can't really tell his gender by the way he writes and he is sympathetic to the struggles of these women.
Now, the conclusion is a but awkward by the implication that one of the reasons for the oppression of women in the past is the fact that they didn't try to change the status quo. While it was true for some women, of lot of them did try to change things. But given the whole tone of the book, I believe that it was just an awkward way of wording his thoughts and I've chosen to just ignore it. Do not let that deter you from reading the book as you would be missing out.
Disclaimer - I received a free digital copy of this book courtesy of Pen and Sword History in exchange for an honest review.
katieb94's review
5.0
I don't read a lot of non-fiction but I saw this book available on Netgalley and was immediately interested because I LOVE history. It focuses on the achievements of women at a time where they had next to no rights, for example, if they owned a business, when they married, all assets became the husbands, The Georgian Era wasn't the best time to be a woman.
There are 17 women featured, and all are definitely worth being in the book. They are; Fanny Burney- an author, Anne Damer- a sculptor, Sarah Siddons- an actress, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu- a woman who inspired Edward Jenner to create a vaccination for smallpox, Jane Marcet- she wrote science textbooks for girls, Sarah Guppy, and inventor, Hester Pinney- a lacemaker and stockbroke, Hester Bateman- a silversmith, Eleanor Coade- she created a business for artificial stone, Mary Darly, a print worker, Teresia Phillips- a bigomist and author who also ran brothels, Elizabeth Raffald- she wrote the first cookery book, Hannah More- an educator, Anne Fry- a chocolatier, Elizabeth Fry (yes, related)- a prison reformer, Margaret, Lady Middleton- an abolitionist, and probably the most famous, Mary Wollenstoncraft- she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women.
You could probably call Mary the first feminist!
It was very interesting to read about their achievements and to discover more about some fascinating ladies! Especially some I hadn't heard of.
The author has clearly done a lot of research when compiling the women for this book. Even though the sections were short, there was a lot of information included. It was good to see that some of the woman were based in Bristol which is local to me, and a city I visit often.
I really enjoyed this book and it was a nice break between fiction. It definitely interested me, and appealed to me, as someone who is really into British history.
I'd definitely recommend it! It just goes to show that women can do anything.
There are 17 women featured, and all are definitely worth being in the book. They are; Fanny Burney- an author, Anne Damer- a sculptor, Sarah Siddons- an actress, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu- a woman who inspired Edward Jenner to create a vaccination for smallpox, Jane Marcet- she wrote science textbooks for girls, Sarah Guppy, and inventor, Hester Pinney- a lacemaker and stockbroke, Hester Bateman- a silversmith, Eleanor Coade- she created a business for artificial stone, Mary Darly, a print worker, Teresia Phillips- a bigomist and author who also ran brothels, Elizabeth Raffald- she wrote the first cookery book, Hannah More- an educator, Anne Fry- a chocolatier, Elizabeth Fry (yes, related)- a prison reformer, Margaret, Lady Middleton- an abolitionist, and probably the most famous, Mary Wollenstoncraft- she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women.
You could probably call Mary the first feminist!
It was very interesting to read about their achievements and to discover more about some fascinating ladies! Especially some I hadn't heard of.
The author has clearly done a lot of research when compiling the women for this book. Even though the sections were short, there was a lot of information included. It was good to see that some of the woman were based in Bristol which is local to me, and a city I visit often.
I really enjoyed this book and it was a nice break between fiction. It definitely interested me, and appealed to me, as someone who is really into British history.
I'd definitely recommend it! It just goes to show that women can do anything.
wordsofclover's review against another edition
2.0
I received this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Trailblazing Women of the Georgian Era: The Eighteenth-Century Struggle for Female Success in a Man's World is a non-fiction novel that is a collection of life stories about different women who made a difference despite living in a generation that believed women were only good in the home.
I was pretty excited to read this. I've read similar types of books in the recent past to do with collections of pretty cool women who I had never heard of before and I was looking forward to expanding my knowledge but this book unfortunately fell completely flat for me.
I think, for me, this book was lacking in personality - there was no sense of fun or wonder in the writing which I have enjoyed with previous collections. Everything was told very matter of fact but almost too matter of fact. I don't think the author helped himself by starting out the book with a really boring chapter about the law at the times regarding women, their freedom and the restrictions they were under regarding property, marriage and business. I feel like anyone going into a book about the Georgian era would have a basic knowledge of this already and I don't think such an extensive chapter was needed. It immediately put me off.
I also didn't understand why there was so much mention of the men in these women's lives? I understand that obviously for some women they needed help from their menfolk because of the restrictions in their lives but there were times when the woman's tale would completely tail off and the author would start updating us about the man and I didn't care one bit. If I wanted to be reading about these men, I wouldn't have picked up a book about trailblazing women.
I do think some of my problems with this book also stem from the fact that I generally prefer books written about women BY women. I feel like if a female author had sat down to the same as what Mike Rendell tried to do with this one, it would have been a lot more engaging and a deeper understanding of these women would have come across. And there would have been less emphasize on the men.
Trailblazing Women of the Georgian Era: The Eighteenth-Century Struggle for Female Success in a Man's World is a non-fiction novel that is a collection of life stories about different women who made a difference despite living in a generation that believed women were only good in the home.
I was pretty excited to read this. I've read similar types of books in the recent past to do with collections of pretty cool women who I had never heard of before and I was looking forward to expanding my knowledge but this book unfortunately fell completely flat for me.
I think, for me, this book was lacking in personality - there was no sense of fun or wonder in the writing which I have enjoyed with previous collections. Everything was told very matter of fact but almost too matter of fact. I don't think the author helped himself by starting out the book with a really boring chapter about the law at the times regarding women, their freedom and the restrictions they were under regarding property, marriage and business. I feel like anyone going into a book about the Georgian era would have a basic knowledge of this already and I don't think such an extensive chapter was needed. It immediately put me off.
I also didn't understand why there was so much mention of the men in these women's lives? I understand that obviously for some women they needed help from their menfolk because of the restrictions in their lives but there were times when the woman's tale would completely tail off and the author would start updating us about the man and I didn't care one bit. If I wanted to be reading about these men, I wouldn't have picked up a book about trailblazing women.
I do think some of my problems with this book also stem from the fact that I generally prefer books written about women BY women. I feel like if a female author had sat down to the same as what Mike Rendell tried to do with this one, it would have been a lot more engaging and a deeper understanding of these women would have come across. And there would have been less emphasize on the men.
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