Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft & Mary Shelley

This dual biography of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley utterly enthralled me. Both were talented, groundbreaking, independent thinking women, they each had drama and difficulties in their lives worthy of a Brontë novel, and between them they knew intimately some of the most interesting people involved with Romantic literature and radical political thought from the French Revolution through to the mid-Victorian years. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born into a poor family with a very difficult, sometimes violent father, but Wollstonecraft was at least as spirited as he was and she struggled to surmount the boundaries gender and poverty put on her life in every way she could, eventually becoming a leading progressive thinker and the author of several influential books, including A Vindication of the Rights of Women. She loved passionately but refused the traditional roles women were expected to embrace at the time, so she married the political philosopher William Godwin late in life and only reluctantly. Wollstonecraft died days after giving birth to the daughter named for her, so it was through her extensive writings that Mary Godwin Shelley came to esteem, cherish, and love her mother. While still a teenager Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein, a social commentary many consider the first science fiction novel, while holed up in Switzerland with a crowd that included Lord Byron. Like her parents she rejected social conventions about love, life, and marriage and at sixteen she scandalized her more staid contemporaries by running away with the already married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, though that particular rebellion she came to regret because it hurt so many people. Mary longed for and looked up to her mother, using her mother's writings as guideposts for her own life, and that reverence was shared by her husband, her stepsister, Lord Byron, and many of Mary's other peers. Romantic Outlaws is written in a back and forth chronology, with chapters about the two women alternating, so the section about Wollstonecraft's early life is followed by one about her daughter at a similar age. I thought this might be confusing, especially since they're both named Mary, but their circumstances were different enough that it was usually simple to keep track of who I was reading about, and structuring the book that way makes it easy to compare the lives of the women, which adds even more interest to their stories. The book is well researched and documented with notes, but far from being a dry recitation of facts I found it quite compelling. Many of the chapters even end in what might almost be called cliffhangers, a technique that definitely kept me highly engaged. Before reading this biography both Marys were more symbols to me than women with families, lovers, personal trials and private doubts, but Charlotte Gordon illuminates the hearts and minds of her subjects and succeeds at bringing the two women and the era they lived in to life. William Godwin, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron are among the people who are also well rendered, and many other fascinating people spend time on the book's pages, including Coleridge, Keats, and John and Abigail Adams. Saying it's engrossing is almost an understatement--I don't remember ever finding a biography so hard to put down. I read an advanced review ebook copy of this book supplied by the publisher through NetGalley, but I've already preordered my own copy hardback edition of Romantic Outlaws.

What Mary Wollstonecraft is most known for, these days, are two things: having written A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and for having giving birth to Mary Godwin, who went on to become Mary Shelley, wife of poet Percy Shelley and author of Frankenstein. The elder Mary died within days of the birth of the younger, her second child but her first legitimate one. If (like me) this is as much or maybe even more than you already knew about both Marys, Charlotte Gordon’s work will introduce you to two legitimately fascinating women. Gordon structures her book in alternating chapters following each Mary, which helps her build the parallels between them: each one followed her heart and made choices that were wildly outside the bounds of what was considered socially acceptable for women in their time. Wollstonecraft, radicalized by her father’s abuse of his entire family into believing that women are people and should be treated like same, made a living as a teacher and then as a writer, went to Paris to see the French Revolution firsthand, refused to leave even when the heads started coming off, fell in love and had a child outside of marriage, published several successful books…and then came back to her native England, where she fell in love with a fellow radical political philosopher William Godwin. They married when she became pregnant despite such an action being outside of both of their ideals. Mary Godwin grew up revering the memory of her lost mother, fought with her stepmother, ran away with her father’s already-married benefactor Percy Shelley at only 16 years old (and brought her stepsister along), had a child out of wedlock and lived through that child’s death, had a second child out of wedlock, made friends with Lord Byron, wrote Frankenstein, got married in an ill-fated attempt to help her husband look more respectable as he fought to gain custody of his children after his first wife’s suicide, argued constantly with her stepsister who almost certainly at some point was sleeping with Percy, had more children, lost more children, and then lived through her husband’s death by drowning. Both women found themselves on the outs with polite society. Both women made some objectively bad decisions. But both were remarkable in their refusal to bow to the social pressure to conform to expectations despite the very real consequences they experienced for that refusal: money woes, in particular, were constant parts of their lives. The structure, switching back and forth between Wollstonecraft and Shelley, worked well for me. Not only did it make clearer the similarities in the ways the two women chose to live their lives, but it also helped keep the book from feeling like it was dragging…always a risk when the page count gets over 600 (it’s close to 550 pages of actual text before references). Despite its length, though, I found Gordon’s writing refreshingly unstuffy. She refuses to engage in speculation for periods where the record is thinner, but neither does she indulge in it wildly. She presents the most supported ideas, presents some short arguments for which of those she believes and why, and moves on. I can’t pretend it didn’t start dragging near the end or never bored me, but for the most part it was lively, interesting, and informative. I enjoyed it and would recommend it!

I have admired Mary Shelley for long time and thought this book about her and her mother sounded interesting. I could not have imagined it would be as engrossing as most fiction. Learning more on the lives of these two legends was amazing. Shifting from one to the other chapter by chapter was outstanding. Gave me much deeper understanding of what they both went through though Shelley’s mother died shortly after her birth. Might read again soon!

I finished this book this week and highly recommend it. When I found it on Amazon, I was surprised that Mary Wollstonecraft is the mother of Mary Shelley (I really didn’t know that!). Two amazing women. Here are my observations: 1. I would have enjoyed English Lit far more as an undergrad if I had understood the context and relationships more (these people are FUN!). 2. I always referred to my English Lit course as the “dead white guys course,” but at the end of this book, it notes that Wollstonecroft and Mary Shelley were included in the Norton Anthology. I still have my Norton Anthology from my English Lit course (yes, I really do!), so I pulled it off the shelf and low and behold, they are BOTH represented in that book, along with quite a few other women who were “skipped” in my professor’s course syllabus. Now I am angry. Are you kidding me?!?!?! I could have been reading this since undergrad?!?!? But NO, they were completely neglected instead. Thankfully I discovered Wollstonecraft during my Gender Studies grad courses and had the opportunity to read The “Vindication of the Rights of Woman” during my doctoral studies. Seriously, though, those were some unfortunate missed opportunities during my undergrad. Ugh! 3. The odd chapters in this book cover the life of Wollstonecroft and the odd chapters cover Shelley. A few times I considered skipping chapters so I could read each woman’s life story linearly, but the juxtaposition of the two lives does work. It just takes a few seconds to “reorient” yourself in the beginning of each chapter because it feels like you are reading two different books sometimes. And as an academic scholar, I am surprised that the author didn’t make this two separate books because that would have worked as well (and could have been two “books” for tenure and promotion). 4. Read this book! 😎

A lot more information and character examination of two immensely influential women, outliers of their time, precursors of modern women. Also a lot of information about the Romantic poets, artists writers and philosophers they knew and lived with, and the historical eras they lived through, which gives a lot more clear and un romanticized versions of their characters and actions, while still giving much about their contributions to art and society. I found this to be an actual page turner of a book, even knowing much about their lives already. Extremely well written. Liked the structure of parallel chapters, alternating between mother and daughter over their separate generations, relationships and cultural history. I have already sent this book to a friend who loved it and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in these women, these time periods, and the history of arts and social philosophy in the West.

The story was riveting, particularly the sections dealing with Mary Wollstonecraft, about whom I knew nothing. But the writing was less successful. The book alternated chapters between Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelly, and it very difficult following either story in this manner. I have colleagues who would read every other chapter to connect the sorely line more easily. And clearly Gordon had strong prejudices which resulted in uneven handling of some of the facts. It's well worth reading, but it could have been much better.

Great biography of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley. Super interesting and well written.

In an early chapter of Charlotte Gordon’s book, “Romantic Outlaws,” Mary Wollstonecraft, leaning over her mother’s dying body, waits expectantly to hear her mother’s last words, an acknowledgement perhaps of Mary’s steadfast devotion to her brothers and sisters, caring for them when her mother was too ill, only to hear instead, “A little patience and all will be over." This episode sets the pace for a double biography of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter, Mary Godwin Shelley, a recounting fraught with unexpected resolutions to situations one can only imagine. Wollstonecraft moves to Paris in 1792 while the French Revolution raged and eventually becomes pregnant with her daughter Fanny whose father was the American business man, Gilbert Imlay. Her other daughter, Mary, a child Wollstonecraft would have later with her husband William Godwin only to die in childbirth, would marry the Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley and pen the novel “Frankenstein.” Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter, Mary, who is sometimes referred to as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, were taught as separate figures until the 1980s. Ms. Gordon argues that Mary Shelley was very much attuned to her mother’s beliefs and struggles because she had left behind so much of her writings. One of the ways that Mary Shelley learned to read was through touching the letters on Wollstonecraft’s headstone at St Pancras cemetery in London as though they were written in Braille. It is through an understanding of the time periods in which Mary and her daughter lived that gives Ms. Gordon’s argument the most credence. The Enlightenment, with its focus on objectivity was at its height in popularity. Rousseau had written “Émile,” which highlighted his hero’s sensitivity and the role of his heroine Sophie, whose existence revolved around her being a coquette. Mary’s moods were ignited and she began to adore the tenets of Romanticism which stressed passion over logic and that individuals were oppressed by society, an outgrowth of the sentimental movement. Her political platform was one against the economic injustices women endured, the terribly limited opportunities for employment, the low wages of governesses, the rigid unequal sexual convention for women by men and the wife’s loss of property rights. These ideas were an anathema to the conservative ideals of writers like Jane Austen who held that maturing meant conscious self-restraint. Mary Shelley was also aware of her mother’s relationships with men. Mary Wollstonecraft had an emotional affair with Henry Fuseli, the painter of the gothic portrait, “The Nightmare,” thought to be Mary’s inspiration for the gothic novel, “Frankenstein.” The painting depicts a swooning woman who is being contemplated by a crouching monster. In “Frankenstein,” the monster created by Victor is willing to leave him alone if he gives him a companion. Mary Shelley’s companion is Percy Bysshe Shelley and her life becomes less about the past and more about their tempestuous marriage. As romantic outlaws, Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter, Mary Shelley lived out their passions. In this dual biography, through her subjects, Charlotte Gordon defines what romantic outlaws are and leaves it to the reader to decide if the mother and daughter are worthy of the title.