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

adventurous challenging informative sad slow-paced

4.0

I’ve never read a dual biography quite like this. Gordon walks us chronologically through the lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley, simultaneously. Every chapter switches between the two. It was a unique reading experience, really allowing me to see the parallels and lines of influence from one generation to the next. It also was a detailed account of what life was like (for a white woman at least) in the late 18th-early 19th centuries. The most interesting parts were their times abroad: Wollstonecraft in France during the Revolution, Shelley in Austria and Italy with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. This was a long book and there’s so much more I can’t fit here, but I highly recommend if you’re at all interested in these authors or these time periods. I have such a deeper understanding and appreciation for them and their works.
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