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mondovertigo's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: War, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death
plaidpladd's review
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Super interesting. Clearly extensively researched but still very readable. I learned a lot and wrote down a bunch of books for further reading.
zhelana's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5
This book definitely fills an empty niche that needed to be written about. I just think it could have been organized better. It switched back and forth between the women she wrote about in each chapter, and I never could have kept them apart. It seems like a better way to organize would have been to follow one woman through her life and then another woman, or I don't know. But the way it was done where she switched back and forth between women made it so I didn't feel like I really got to know any of the women very well and I was often confused as to whom we were speaking about, especially since chapters were already so long that I often put the book down mid chapter and then forgot who we were talking about by the next time I picked the book up. I liked a lot of the information in this book and I think it is a needed book, but it was very confusing. i'm not sure why the chapters were presented in the order in which they were. I'd happily read more about any of these ladies, but probably not by this author.
hannah_bookworm's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
This is a truly brilliant book on 4 Renaissance writers whose lives, outside of academic circles, are pretty much unknown, and even within academia are only just taking root. This is a fantastically articulate book, informative, captivating, and genuinely a joy to read.
mari1532's review
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
I want to thank Netgalley and Knof Publishing for a copy of this book.
Brief Summary: A nonfiction work examining the biographies and literary contributions of four Renaissance women: Mary Sidney (Countess of Pembroke), Aemilia Lanyer, Elizabeth Cary (Viscountess Falkland), and Anne Clifford (Baroness Clifford; Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery). These women's lives are interwoven throughout the book as their lives were and highlight the influence these women had on each other works as well as literature at large.
Thoughts: This book starts a little slow as Targoff does a thorough job discussing the entirety of each of these women's lives including discussing their childhoods, socioeconomic status, and relationships. However, around chapter 3 my interest in the book increased because the women began to have greater agency within their own lives.
Throughout the book which of the women I found the most fascinating continued to change with the more information that I learned about each one of them. I think that this speaks volumes about both the subjects of the books and Targoff's writing style. By interweaving the narratives events in time are being kept in chronological order from the reign of Elizabeth I to the Restoration Period. It also allowed Targoff to highlight how each of these women knew and were related to one another. For example, Anne Clifford married for the second time to Mary Sidney's son and Aemilia Lanyer appears to have tutored Anne for a time during her youth. While Anne and Elizabeth moved in the same court circles.
I also really enjoyed how Targoff also highlighted and integrated these women's connections to Anna of Denmark (Queen Consort to James VI and I) and Henrietta Maria (Queen Consort to Charles I). It was particularly interesting to learn about Queen Anna's interest in Anne's court case the advice she gave Anne which helped her hold her ground in the face of pressure from the men around her or how Henrietta Maria aided Elizabeth with religious matters.
Balancing the discussion of world events and biographical information can be a difficult task especially when information is not as readily available for the subject, but Targoff does an excellent job. Particularly with Aemilia who is the least sociologically advantaged of the women discussed throughout this book. I appreciate the archival work that Targoff had to conduct to find her in the historical record later in her life and the later court cases were very interesting.
I think that this is a great book for anyone interested in learning about women-centred history, particularly those who contributed to Renaissance literature I would recommend this book. This book is an excellent combination of literary contribution, biography, and history.
Brief Summary: A nonfiction work examining the biographies and literary contributions of four Renaissance women: Mary Sidney (Countess of Pembroke), Aemilia Lanyer, Elizabeth Cary (Viscountess Falkland), and Anne Clifford (Baroness Clifford; Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery). These women's lives are interwoven throughout the book as their lives were and highlight the influence these women had on each other works as well as literature at large.
Thoughts: This book starts a little slow as Targoff does a thorough job discussing the entirety of each of these women's lives including discussing their childhoods, socioeconomic status, and relationships. However, around chapter 3 my interest in the book increased because the women began to have greater agency within their own lives.
Throughout the book which of the women I found the most fascinating continued to change with the more information that I learned about each one of them. I think that this speaks volumes about both the subjects of the books and Targoff's writing style. By interweaving the narratives events in time are being kept in chronological order from the reign of Elizabeth I to the Restoration Period. It also allowed Targoff to highlight how each of these women knew and were related to one another. For example, Anne Clifford married for the second time to Mary Sidney's son and Aemilia Lanyer appears to have tutored Anne for a time during her youth. While Anne and Elizabeth moved in the same court circles.
I also really enjoyed how Targoff also highlighted and integrated these women's connections to Anna of Denmark (Queen Consort to James VI and I) and Henrietta Maria (Queen Consort to Charles I). It was particularly interesting to learn about Queen Anna's interest in Anne's court case the advice she gave Anne which helped her hold her ground in the face of pressure from the men around her or how Henrietta Maria aided Elizabeth with religious matters.
Balancing the discussion of world events and biographical information can be a difficult task especially when information is not as readily available for the subject, but Targoff does an excellent job. Particularly with Aemilia who is the least sociologically advantaged of the women discussed throughout this book. I appreciate the archival work that Targoff had to conduct to find her in the historical record later in her life and the later court cases were very interesting.
I think that this is a great book for anyone interested in learning about women-centred history, particularly those who contributed to Renaissance literature I would recommend this book. This book is an excellent combination of literary contribution, biography, and history.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Child death, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Xenophobia, War, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Misogyny
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Animal death, Vomit, and Suicide