Four star review, originally posted here on September 9th, 2024.
I wasn’t going to read this book. It looked boring. It was free, which made me suspicious (They can’t even give this thing away!) And at a whopping 20+ hours it was loooooong. I hate long books. And this boring-looking book seemed like it would probably drag on for forever. But I have had so many reading disappointments recently, and this thing was free, so I figured I’d throw it on to pass the time until I could find something actually good.
I’m so glad I read it anyway. This book is great! Is it a little too long? Yes. But only a little. We basically get two books in one; we get the biography of Mary Wollstonecraft, and the biography of Mary Shelly, but in alternating chapters. At times I got a little confused on which was which (it doesn’t help that they’re both named Mary!), especially since the book was so long that by the end of it, I’d forgotten what had happened on our subjects’ early lives. But, again, this only detracted a little.
Both of these women went through some legit super interesting things in their lives, and it was interesting to compare and contrast how their similarly strong wills and brilliant minds managed to thrive in their two very different worlds. The main external factor they both had in common was that they were surrounded by tons of seriously shitty men. I mean truly useless assholes. Some of this was circumstance beyond their control (we can’t pick our own fathers!) but I was flabbergasted and soooo frustrated by the idiots they chose as romantic partners. It wasn’t just that the men were such tools, it was also how foolishly the Marys acted around these dudes. Part of it was just the naivete of youth, I suppose, coupled with the sheltered treatment of women at the time(s). But on the other hand, these seemingly obtuse women also were brilliant enough to come up with groundbreaking works like “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” and “Frankenstein” when freakin’ NOBODY else on the planet was voicing radical ideas like “hey maybe women are people” and “yo wouldn’t it be wild if some asshole built a monster out of discarded human body parts and then just kinda abandoned it so it has to grow and learn on its own and then it comes back to kill everyone the asshole cared about? lolz!”
Speaking as shitty men… One thing I found frustrating about the book was how much of the story circles around both womens’ relationships with bad dudes. Mary Shelly lived into her 50’s, and only spent 6 years married to Percy Shelly. Yet half her timeline was spent on her time with Shelly. I am certainly not suggesting that time part of her life wasn’t important (indeed, it was clearly very formative), but that is perhaps the greatest lesson I learned from the book; men jack everything up.
Now… I am by NO MEANS a man-hating feminist. I mean, I am a feminist, but definitely not a man-hater. I love dudes! Dudes are great! Some of my best friends are dudes! But after reading this book, I was ready to burn this man-world to the ground. Both of these women were incredible DESPITE OF, not because of, the men in their lives. They were serious badasses, and I’m so glad I now know all about them.
Helga without the H 