Love and Fury by Samantha Silva, a galvanizing portrait of English writer Mary Wollstonecraft
The lives of trailblazing English proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter, Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, overlapped by only eleven days, as Wollstonecraft tragically died from postpartum infection in 1797. In her second novel, Silva (Mr. Dickens and His Carol, 2019) probes the perspective of another literary icon, imagining the older Mary, weakened from childbirth, telling her life story to her baby at her midwife’s suggestion. Mary’s passionate declaration of selfhood carries readers on a wide-ranging, deep journey where she eloquently voices the circumstances shaping her views, her strong attachments to other independent thinkers, like Fanny Blood, and her struggles to escape societal constraints. Raised in a large family where her father abused her mother, she grows infuriated by gender inequality and aims to enlighten women who participate in their own diminution.
Related with superb detail on late-eighteenth-century locales and intellectual pursuits, Mary’s experiences leave her initially doubting the possibility of equal marriage between men and women. This absorbing tale of courage, sorrow, and the dance between independence and intimacy delivers a sense of triumphant catharsis.
Love and Fury was published by Flatiron in May, and I'd turned in this review for Booklist (the final version was published in their historical fiction issue on May 15th). Allison & Busby will publish the novel in the UK in mid-June. Terrific book, with a beautiful cover. You can read an excerpt at the author's website.
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Gary
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Jun 01, 2021 07:27AM
Is there any reference to her relationship with the painter Fuseli? His painting, "The Nightmare" is believed to have inspired at least one important scene in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."
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Yes, their turbulent relationship is shown in the book. I hadn't realized that about the painting, which is pretty creepy!
Sarah wrote: "Yes, their turbulent relationship is shown in the book. I hadn't realized that about the painting, which is pretty creepy!"The painting is definitely creepy, and Fuseli painted more than one version. Mary Shelley is believed to have referred to the painting in Elizabeth Frankenstein's death scene.
"She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down, and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair."
– Mary Shelley
Frankenstein, Chapter 23.
Back in the 1980's, Fuseli's "Nightmare" was featured in two films about the Shelleys, Claire Claremont(Mary's half-sister), Byron, Dr. Polidori and their cold, wild summer in Switzerland that inspired Frankenstein: "Haunted Summer"--based on Anne Edwards novel--and "Gothic." Around that time, there was a third film on the same subject, 'Rowing with the Wind," but I don't recall any specific reference to Fuseli's painting in that one.
Thanks for all the information. I had read Haunted Summer, the novel, a long time ago, but haven't seen the film version. Shelley's description of Elizabeth Frankenstein's death scene does fit the painting very well.
