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

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Engaging & at times a very thrilling read. Very, very well-written and easy to read despite the length. I did take an extended break from reading shortly after I started this book & was unable to get back to it for over a year, but that was on account of my personal life, not the merits of the book. As an aside, a majority of the content warnings I’ve tagged for this are things discussed, not necessarily perpetuated, in the work.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Misogyny, Grief, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, War, Abandonment, Child abuse, Incest, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Homophobia, Pedophilia, and Rape

It is worth noting there’s also a moderate amount of discussion of capital punishment (particularly during the French Revolution), as well as minor discussion of graverobbing and corpse exhumation. That aside, the content warnings I’ve listed are moreso attributed to the events (& occasionally, people) the book covers than anything seeming to be endorsed by the author. There may be some things I missed, since I took a long break from reading in the middle, but I tried to mark down everything as best I could, based on how much they reoccur and how prominent they are within the biographies.