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Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley
Excellent. Recommended reading for the New Year!
This very well-researched biography alternates chapters between the lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley focusing on the women's writing lives, readings, study, politics, and influences as well as their relationships.
Mary Wollstonecraft was "a teacher, a hellfire preacher, a satirist, and a utopian dreamer," originator of the political philosophy of feminism, and the author of Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792).
Mary Shelley was author of Frankenstein (1818), companion and editor to Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley (her husband) and Lord Byron, and she expressed many of the same ideas as her mother in fiction.
Both women wrote about the importance of women's rights, independence and education — and faced scorn and criticism in society both for their words and for acting in accordance with their values. They both believed in Romanticism, "the elevation of emotion over reason, passion over logic, spontaneity over restraint, and originality over tradition." They believed that feminine values were needed in the world and that, "when men are guided by ambition, not love, and by fame, not family, then women and children pay the price." And they believed that art, words and ideas could be revolutionary and change the world for the better.
The biography is rich in detail, which could frustrate a casual reader, but may fascinate and fulfill anyone interested in these writers. When the author includes descriptions like "...almond trees bloomed in drifts of startling pink; delicate anemones and primroses brightened the gardens." it seems suitable to Mary Shelley's Romantic tendencies and rings true that the writer may well have observed and noted the flora and fauna around her in detail. When the author describes how Mary Wollstonecraft hated dragging her skirts through the mud "...the hem of her long dress dragging through the drifts, her ankles and feet icy cold. She wrote Godwin, 'You have no petticoats to dangle in the snow. Poor women, how they are beset with plagues—within and without.'" it helps the reader see the world more clearly through her experience and lens of time.
The book illuminates these fascinating women, the writers and philosophers of their times and the future writers they inspired. It shows how they defied the cultural expectations and the politics of the times in which they lived to forward and live their ideals. The women provide role models for creating art in conservative times. "Their refusal to bow down, to subside and surrender, to be quiet and subservient, to apologize and hide, makes their lives as memorable as the words they left behind. They asserted their right to determine their own destinies, starting a revolution that has yet to end."
Let them be for us as they have been for others "a lifeline between generations."
Their lives also provide lessons on the mutability of history. We must pay attention to, forward, think and write about what is important to us — what we wish to be remembered and wish would influence the future.
Read this for: anyone interested in feminism, social justice, struggling with sadness, writers
Pairs well with: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
Adding to my to-read list: Letters from Sweden, Mary Wollstonecraft Falkner, Valperga, Mary Shelley's novels
Notable: Both women struggled with depression (Mary Wollstonecraft attempted suicide) — they coped by writing and being in nature. "I must love and admire with warmth, or I sink into sadness," Mary Wollstonecraft said. She explored these questions: "What role could Nature play in healing an individual's pain? How was civilization harming or helping the human spirit? Could the life of the imagination triumph over a life dedicated to material pleasures?"
Quotable:
"Some write of what was; others of what is...but I write of what will be." — Mary Wollstonecraft
"She knew she was going against the tide, but she was driven by her need to expose class hatred, racism, and unabated prejudice." — on Mary Shelley
"Passion could be a driving force for reform in the world and should be revered." — Mary Wollstonecraft
"It is the future that holds promise. Reformation, not nostalgia, will save humanity." — Mary Wollstonecraft
In Falkner: "...Mary (Shelley) emphasizes the power of the heroine to save the male characters from their ambitions, preserving their lives and bringing them into the warmth of the family...Acting not as a warrior, but as an advocate for peace, Elizabeth creates a utopia based on the 'feminine' values of compassion, love, and family. Without the follies caused by male ambition, Mary implies, there would be no more war, no more children lost."
"The artist's job was to summon these ideals, to envision and embody them so others could be inspired. Only in this way could the human condition improve. To (Percy Bysshe) Shelley, a great work of art could overthrow tyranny just as decisively as an army could. In fact, more decisively, because a painting or a poem could change people's minds and souls, something brute force could never do."
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