The narration alternates between Mrs B (Mary’s midwife), and Mary.

Tragically Mary died ten days after the birth. She eventually met and married William Godwin, and they had a baby who grew up to write Frankenstein. Mary wrote a lot of books, including A Declaration on the Rights of Women. When he dumped her, she tried to kill herself twice and then re-invented herself as a travel writer, traveling all over Europe with her infant daughter and the daughter’s indefatigable nurse in tow. She was a war journalist who covered the French Revolution from Paris, where she fell in love with Gilbert Imlay and had a daughter with him. She had what at the time were called “passionate friendships ” with two women, one of whom she started a school with. Mary Wollstonecraft was born in 1759 and was protecting her mother from her abusive father and raising her siblings pretty much single-handedly by the time she was thirteen. Here is a very abbreviated summary of Mary’s life. They didn’t all like her, but they certainly paid attention. However, I also think that this book manages an uplifting tone by demonstrating that Mary’s life mattered, not just to her, and not just to future generations, but to all of the people who came in contact with her. Perhaps the blows were cushioned by the fact that as a Wollstonecraft fan I knew most of what lay ahead. Rather, I found myself exhilarated by all Mary did with her life, and more fond than ever of this stubborn, passionate, brilliant, frustrating woman. Further TW’S include a difficult childbirth, depression, sexism, attempted suicide, marital rape, and death of an infant.Īnd yet I did not find the book to be depressing.

TW: Death from childbirth, abuse of children, implied martial rape, murder of a dog.

Love and fury by samantha silva