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Genre - Non Fiction
Fanny Wollstonecraft was a 22 year old girl who committed suicide in a small hotel in Wales in 1816. Her sad story is one of the sidelights of literary history because her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, a famous feminist, and her half-sister was Mary Godwin, who married the poet Shelley, and wrote Frankenstein. Fanny’s life was lonely and unregarded. She was illegitimate and her father abandoned mother and daughter shortly after Fanny’s birth. Her mother died giving birth to Mary when Fanny was only three, and she then lived in the household of her stepfather, William Godwin, with his second wife and several step-siblings. Fanny was the odd one out, not pretty, not clever, put-upon. When Shelley eloped with Mary Godwin, leaving Fanny behind, she was devastated. Her loneliness increased as she was torn between her stepfather and her siblings. Janet Todd’s book is a fascinating look inside this circle of geniuses. Written with sympathy for Fanny’s short, unhappy life, it is essential reading for anyone interested in the Romantic poets.
---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters
Genre - Non Fiction
Fanny Wollstonecraft was a 22 year old girl who committed suicide in a small hotel in Wales in 1816. Her sad story is one of the sidelights of literary history because her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, a famous feminist, and her half-sister was Mary Godwin, who married the poet Shelley, and wrote Frankenstein. Fanny’s life was lonely and unregarded. She was illegitimate and her father abandoned mother and daughter shortly after Fanny’s birth. Her mother died giving birth to Mary when Fanny was only three, and she then lived in the household of her stepfather, William Godwin, with his second wife and several step-siblings. Fanny was the odd one out, not pretty, not clever, put-upon. When Shelley eloped with Mary Godwin, leaving Fanny behind, she was devastated. Her loneliness increased as she was torn between her stepfather and her siblings. Janet Todd’s book is a fascinating look inside this circle of geniuses. Written with sympathy for Fanny’s short, unhappy life, it is essential reading for anyone interested in the Romantic poets.
---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters
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