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Love Among the Butterflies: The Secret Life of a Victorian Lady
The diaries of Margaret Fountaine, a woman living in Victorian England, profile a woman who scoffed at Victorian attitudes and lived life fully
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
About the author
Margaret Fountaine
4 books4 followersMargaret Elizabeth Fountaine, a Victorian lepidopterist and diarist, was an accomplished natural history illustrator. She had a great love and knowledge of butterflies, travelling and collecting extensively through Europe, South Africa, India, Tibet, America, Australia and the West Indies, publishing numerous papers on her work. She raised many of the butterflies from eggs or caterpillars, producing specimens of great quality, 22,000 of which are housed at the Norwich Castle Museum and known as the Fountaine-Neimy Collection. Her four sketch books of butterfly life-cycles are held at the Natural History Museum in London.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
December 31, 2014
I picked this up at my favourite junk/antique/rummage shop, noting that I had never heard of Margaret Fountaine and perhaps I should have. She lived from 1862 to 1940 and was the daughter of a Norfolk clergyman. She kept detailed dairies from the age of 16; keeping notes and usually writing them up once a year. They run to twelve hefty volumes. Her will indicated that they should be sealed until 15 April 1978 in case they should shock (100 years after she begun them). They were duly unsealed and edited for publication. This volume covers 1878 to about 1913 and there is a follow on volume.
Margaret Fountaine was someone who clearly needed a purpose to her life. She started by drawing and spent some time travelling Britain sketching the inside of cathedrals. However her real passion became collecting and displaying butterflies. She is renowned amateur entomologist and lepidopterist and also an accomplished natural history illustrator. She travelled the world collecting specimens. Her development as a collector is interesting. She realised that taking specimens out of the wild was not always the best thing to do and so she began to take a female with eggs and raise her own. Many of the specimens in her collections were raised by her out in a variety of wild and dangerous places. Her butterfly collection is in a museum in Norwich and her illustrations are in the Natural History Museum in London.
Fountaine had much to battle with; her upbringing was a very traditional Victorian one and she was given a strong sense of her own social standing and how she should relate to others and what was proper and improper. The diaries illustrate how she battled for years with her upbringing, sometimes constrained by it, often breaking free from it. Her relationships with men are fascinating. She is at times quite conventional, thinking she ought to get married to an appropriate man and be conventional (even getting engaged a couple of times). However instinctively she did not really wish to marry. She had an early passion for a chorister at Norwich Cathedral (much to the horror of her family) and even followed him to Ireland when he was dismissed for drunkenness. She did however have one long term relationship; with a man she hired as a dragoman (guide and interpreter), Kahlil Neimy, a Syrian born of Greek parents. They travelled together for 27 years until his death in 1928 (he was 15 years her junior). At various times they were engaged, they were certainly lovers, though not initially. He was devoted to her and travelled together all over the world; nursing each other through malaria. At times Fountaine was scandalised by her own behaviour, at other times not. She struggled with how to explain his presence to more conventional society. This was one of the most interesting aspects of the diaries; the internal conflict which she explains very well. At times Fountaine is very modern, unconventional and pioneering and at other times she feels she is betraying her upbringing and the standards she was brought up with.
At times she can appear racist and imperialist and of her time and then she breezes through convention with unexpected verve and takes the breath away with her warmth and acceptance of others. She was an early user of the bicycle, finding very useful for travelling to difficult places. She travelled all over the world, initially in Europe, then the Middle East, Africa, India, Australia, the US, into the Himalayas and Tibet. She died while collecting butterflies in Trinidad in 1940; still on the road (alone).
She was a truly independent woman, a keen supporter of women’s suffrage (although never in England long enough to do much about it). Included in her adventures were close encounters with Corsican bandits, malaria, numerous men intent on taking her virtue or worse (she rarely backed away from them, preferring to face and challenge them), she enjoyed aeroplanes and cars once they were available, jumped off a crashing train in the bush, got lost in the jungle (volume 2), slept in all sorts of unlikely places (becoming an expert in insects that bite in the night).
I found Margaret Fountaine in equal parts wonderful and irritating; but she was a remarkable and independent woman who deserves more recognition. Her sheer force of character shines through and her sense of adventure and sheer bravery are remarkable
Margaret Fountaine was someone who clearly needed a purpose to her life. She started by drawing and spent some time travelling Britain sketching the inside of cathedrals. However her real passion became collecting and displaying butterflies. She is renowned amateur entomologist and lepidopterist and also an accomplished natural history illustrator. She travelled the world collecting specimens. Her development as a collector is interesting. She realised that taking specimens out of the wild was not always the best thing to do and so she began to take a female with eggs and raise her own. Many of the specimens in her collections were raised by her out in a variety of wild and dangerous places. Her butterfly collection is in a museum in Norwich and her illustrations are in the Natural History Museum in London.
Fountaine had much to battle with; her upbringing was a very traditional Victorian one and she was given a strong sense of her own social standing and how she should relate to others and what was proper and improper. The diaries illustrate how she battled for years with her upbringing, sometimes constrained by it, often breaking free from it. Her relationships with men are fascinating. She is at times quite conventional, thinking she ought to get married to an appropriate man and be conventional (even getting engaged a couple of times). However instinctively she did not really wish to marry. She had an early passion for a chorister at Norwich Cathedral (much to the horror of her family) and even followed him to Ireland when he was dismissed for drunkenness. She did however have one long term relationship; with a man she hired as a dragoman (guide and interpreter), Kahlil Neimy, a Syrian born of Greek parents. They travelled together for 27 years until his death in 1928 (he was 15 years her junior). At various times they were engaged, they were certainly lovers, though not initially. He was devoted to her and travelled together all over the world; nursing each other through malaria. At times Fountaine was scandalised by her own behaviour, at other times not. She struggled with how to explain his presence to more conventional society. This was one of the most interesting aspects of the diaries; the internal conflict which she explains very well. At times Fountaine is very modern, unconventional and pioneering and at other times she feels she is betraying her upbringing and the standards she was brought up with.
At times she can appear racist and imperialist and of her time and then she breezes through convention with unexpected verve and takes the breath away with her warmth and acceptance of others. She was an early user of the bicycle, finding very useful for travelling to difficult places. She travelled all over the world, initially in Europe, then the Middle East, Africa, India, Australia, the US, into the Himalayas and Tibet. She died while collecting butterflies in Trinidad in 1940; still on the road (alone).
She was a truly independent woman, a keen supporter of women’s suffrage (although never in England long enough to do much about it). Included in her adventures were close encounters with Corsican bandits, malaria, numerous men intent on taking her virtue or worse (she rarely backed away from them, preferring to face and challenge them), she enjoyed aeroplanes and cars once they were available, jumped off a crashing train in the bush, got lost in the jungle (volume 2), slept in all sorts of unlikely places (becoming an expert in insects that bite in the night).
I found Margaret Fountaine in equal parts wonderful and irritating; but she was a remarkable and independent woman who deserves more recognition. Her sheer force of character shines through and her sense of adventure and sheer bravery are remarkable
January 2, 2013
I love reading old diaries, they often make even the simplest life interesting, because they're so personal. This is only small portion of Margaret Fountaine's extensive diary collection, and is chopped up quite a bit with the editor's commentary. He does this because there are far too many of her diaries to publish, and he says that Margaret often goes on for pages and pages with quite boring narrative that nobody would want to read. But I really wish he had included more of Margaret's own writing, and less commentary of his own which at times seems abrupt and sometimes opinionated. (the book stops way before Margaret's death... her adventures go on for 3 more volumes.... which he summarizes in a few pages at the end of the book.) The book is only 200 pages long, and I feel if it had been 400 it could have included much more of Margaret's life
Margaret Fontaine led a pretty fascinating life... Just as she thinks she's going to need to find a suitable husband to ensure her future... her rich uncle decides to bestow some of his wealth on her and her sisters. No longer dependent on marriage for a comfortable life, Margaret decides to do what she loves best: Travel and collect butterflies. And she travels for most of her life. She bicycles halfway across Europe, much of it on her own, 30 or 40 miles a day. She has no chaperone in well traveled places, and for countries a little less friendly to travelers, she hires a Dragoman. Whenever she runs out of money she goes back to England until her next annual allowance comes up and she's off again. She's fearless... meeting people alone and staying with strangers.
The purpose of most of these travels, besides to see all the places she's never been, is to collect butterflies. Margaret does this rabidly--sometimes hundreds a day. Her collection must be in the hundreds of thousands.
The whole time she's traveling Margaret keeps one eye open for the perfect husband. And there are a lot of men in her life. Most of them seem very sketchy to me, and she almost falls for some of them, but fate and sometimes good sense often intervene. The men mostly seem to think that since she is an independent woman traveling alone, she's also a fast one. She leads some of them on a bit before informing them she has no intention of any illicit affairs. She thinks she's quite worldly when it comes to men but I think she's actually very naive. I won't go into detail on that, because it'll spoil the story.
I only saw one tiny lament about the death of the butterflies she collects, and this is (pun intended) fleeting. I find it ironic that she's out there stifling all these butterflies while at the same time admiring them for their beauty and their freedom... the thing she desires most in the world. The longer she travels the less she likes the idea of marrying and being tied down. She loves her traveling life and can't bear to think of living in one place for the rest of her life.
The diary is tedious at times but overall a really interesting read.
Margaret Fontaine led a pretty fascinating life... Just as she thinks she's going to need to find a suitable husband to ensure her future... her rich uncle decides to bestow some of his wealth on her and her sisters. No longer dependent on marriage for a comfortable life, Margaret decides to do what she loves best: Travel and collect butterflies. And she travels for most of her life. She bicycles halfway across Europe, much of it on her own, 30 or 40 miles a day. She has no chaperone in well traveled places, and for countries a little less friendly to travelers, she hires a Dragoman. Whenever she runs out of money she goes back to England until her next annual allowance comes up and she's off again. She's fearless... meeting people alone and staying with strangers.
The purpose of most of these travels, besides to see all the places she's never been, is to collect butterflies. Margaret does this rabidly--sometimes hundreds a day. Her collection must be in the hundreds of thousands.
The whole time she's traveling Margaret keeps one eye open for the perfect husband. And there are a lot of men in her life. Most of them seem very sketchy to me, and she almost falls for some of them, but fate and sometimes good sense often intervene. The men mostly seem to think that since she is an independent woman traveling alone, she's also a fast one. She leads some of them on a bit before informing them she has no intention of any illicit affairs. She thinks she's quite worldly when it comes to men but I think she's actually very naive. I won't go into detail on that, because it'll spoil the story.
I only saw one tiny lament about the death of the butterflies she collects, and this is (pun intended) fleeting. I find it ironic that she's out there stifling all these butterflies while at the same time admiring them for their beauty and their freedom... the thing she desires most in the world. The longer she travels the less she likes the idea of marrying and being tied down. She loves her traveling life and can't bear to think of living in one place for the rest of her life.
The diary is tedious at times but overall a really interesting read.
January 3, 2014
Another 3.5.
What a remarkable woman Margaret Fountaine was. From a conventional Victorian background (she was a country clergyman's daughter) she flew like one of her butterflies into an extraordinarily adventurous life and, while not at all conventional in her activities and approach to life, she retained a careful sense of what was and was not acceptable behaviour.
the quotes on the cover of the Penguin edition I read sum it up very nicely:
'the diaries of a wayward, determined and passionate Victorian ladey, and
The candid confessions of a cheerful, humorous, inquisitive and infinitely susceptible female' (The Observer review.)
Fountaine kept regular notes of her happy encounters with men and butterflies and wrote them up once a year on her birthday.
In this book and its sequel, the annual records have been edited with delightful and informative interludes from the editor, W. F Cater, an assistant editor of the Sunday Times.
A pleasure to read.
What a remarkable woman Margaret Fountaine was. From a conventional Victorian background (she was a country clergyman's daughter) she flew like one of her butterflies into an extraordinarily adventurous life and, while not at all conventional in her activities and approach to life, she retained a careful sense of what was and was not acceptable behaviour.
the quotes on the cover of the Penguin edition I read sum it up very nicely:
'the diaries of a wayward, determined and passionate Victorian ladey, and
The candid confessions of a cheerful, humorous, inquisitive and infinitely susceptible female' (The Observer review.)
Fountaine kept regular notes of her happy encounters with men and butterflies and wrote them up once a year on her birthday.
In this book and its sequel, the annual records have been edited with delightful and informative interludes from the editor, W. F Cater, an assistant editor of the Sunday Times.
A pleasure to read.
May 14, 2017
Margaret Fountaine, born in 1862, to a squire/clergyman and his uptight wife, Margaret spent her childhood reading romantic novels and visiting illustrious relatives with her sisters. After receiving a diary at 17, she kept on writing until her death in 1940. An unsuitable passion for a penniless, Irish chorister in her 20s shaped her destiny. With a broken heart and an inheritance from an uncle, Margaret set out off into the great wide world to collect butterflies for scientific purposes. She was also determined to collect as many men as possible and break their hearts. She spent the rest of her life as she pleased: traveling, collecting and rejecting lovers until her early 40s when she could no longer deny her lover, a Syrian Christian, anything. They traveled as employer/employee, companions, lovers, and sometimes masqueraded as siblings in pursuit of butterflies.
I picked this up when Deanna Raybourn stated she based her character Veronica Speedwell on Margaret Fountaine. There's a huge difference in their upbringings and life paths. Margaret didn't give in to her lover's pleas for a passionate physical relationship until she was 41! At that time she was already a noted lepidopterist and had collected many butterflies and men. Veronica is quite a bit younger with a vastly different upbringing so I still find Veronica anachronistic but Margaret was certainly aware of her charms and the power she held over men. A woman traveling alone was a rare sight and naturally Victorian men assumed she would allow them to behave differently than they would in England. They assumed wrong. Margaret was an interesting woman who seems to have gotten more fascinating as she grew older.
This diary contains only excerpts from Margaret's journals. The editor summarizes a lot of information and quotes from the diaries. I would like to see a full printing of the actual diaries with annotations. Sometimes Margaret's writing is dry and boring, especially in her youth, but her travels were really interesting and I loved reading about her travels to exotic parts of the world. Her adventures kept me up nights reading or skipping ahead to find out what she would do in a certain situation and where she would go from there. Other times I almost fell asleep reading the editorial comments and slower passages. I especially liked how she covered some of the same territory as Amelia Peabody (Crocodile on the Sandbank) around the same time.
This book is illustrated with color plates that show handwritten pages of Margaret's diary with some of her sketches, drawings and photographs of butterflies she collected and images of the places she visited.
I recommend this book to those interested in Victorian lady travelers, unconventional 19th-century women and fans of Veronica Speedwell and Amelia Peabody.
I picked this up when Deanna Raybourn stated she based her character Veronica Speedwell on Margaret Fountaine. There's a huge difference in their upbringings and life paths. Margaret didn't give in to her lover's pleas for a passionate physical relationship until she was 41! At that time she was already a noted lepidopterist and had collected many butterflies and men. Veronica is quite a bit younger with a vastly different upbringing so I still find Veronica anachronistic but Margaret was certainly aware of her charms and the power she held over men. A woman traveling alone was a rare sight and naturally Victorian men assumed she would allow them to behave differently than they would in England. They assumed wrong. Margaret was an interesting woman who seems to have gotten more fascinating as she grew older.
This diary contains only excerpts from Margaret's journals. The editor summarizes a lot of information and quotes from the diaries. I would like to see a full printing of the actual diaries with annotations. Sometimes Margaret's writing is dry and boring, especially in her youth, but her travels were really interesting and I loved reading about her travels to exotic parts of the world. Her adventures kept me up nights reading or skipping ahead to find out what she would do in a certain situation and where she would go from there. Other times I almost fell asleep reading the editorial comments and slower passages. I especially liked how she covered some of the same territory as Amelia Peabody (Crocodile on the Sandbank) around the same time.
This book is illustrated with color plates that show handwritten pages of Margaret's diary with some of her sketches, drawings and photographs of butterflies she collected and images of the places she visited.
I recommend this book to those interested in Victorian lady travelers, unconventional 19th-century women and fans of Veronica Speedwell and Amelia Peabody.
May 21, 2016
It's magical. It puts life in perspective and inspires me to have adventures and embrace my life. I feel like I really relate to this lady from a different age.
October 1, 2025
Margaret Fountaine was born in 1862, and had a conventional Victorian childhood but proved herself utterly unconventional and determined. In 1978 twelve volumes of her diaries, from the age of 15 in 1877 to just before her death in 1940, aged 78, were opened in the museum at Norwich Castle. From her teenage years, she fell in love often. When she was twenty-one she fell in love with an Irish singer, whom she pursued to Ireland. When this relationship failed she began to develop what became her lifelong passion for travel and butterfly collecting, at first in Europe, but later extending her travels into the Middle East, the United States, Africa, India and the West Indies, where she died. She inspired romantic feelings in many men, and fell easily in love herself until she met a Syrian dragoman, Khalil Neimy (married with children she found out later) in 1901, who overcame her concerns about marrying beneath her, and with whom she travelled the world for twenty-eight years. She was brave and quite amazing enduring the most primitive conditions and the most terrifying of journeys. This is a wonderful account of a truly remarkable woman and I look forward to volume two of her adventures
April 2, 2024
Found in my dad’s library; A perfect combo of lady entomologist and Victorian sensibilities.
Amazing story of travel in a time when to be a female adventurer was hardly commonplace. I’m glad to have met Margaret
Amazing story of travel in a time when to be a female adventurer was hardly commonplace. I’m glad to have met Margaret
August 8, 2018
I was fascinated at this glimpse of an independent woman in an age known for its repression.
Her travels in search of butterflies were extensive. I wanted the book to continue through the rest of her diaries.
Her travels in search of butterflies were extensive. I wanted the book to continue through the rest of her diaries.
December 8, 2017
I was expecting to find a diary, but I was not disappointed with excerpts and summaries. Miss Fountaine lived quite a remarkable and different life than most of us do today.
February 28, 2026
An intrepid Victorian spinster travels the world collecting butterflies and having a long-term affair with a much younger Syrian man. Just wonderful, utterly charming, and one of my all-time favorites.
January 11, 2018
Was really surprised at how much freedom she had, given the times. Such an interesting life!
March 12, 2018
I absolutely loved this book, I can't believe how much freedom she had to travel! I finished wanting to read more and wish it went on forever
June 4, 2018
Sicuramente un'intrepida per i suoi tempi, ma così vacua.
April 14, 2019
I need a movie of Margaret Fountaine's life, like now.
August 20, 2022
Brilliant, wish I had more to read.
December 14, 2023
I enjoyed reading the private thoughts of a woman who didn't want to do what was expected of her and resourcefully did what she liked instead.
July 9, 2021
Absolutely fabulous read about a independent, free thinking, intelligent woman in the late 1800's. I loved this book (a true story), and the diaries of Ms. Margaret Fountaine, the world travelled butterfly collector! I will not forget her! The editor did a great job putting together many years of diary entries, adding summaries of the periods in between...and presents it seemlessly. I think I would have loved to have been her friend!
January 23, 2013
Ginevra ha ormai quarant'anni ed è una zitella in cerca di un impiego modesto
come bambinaia. Sebbene abbia ormai perso ogni speranza di trovare un lavoro
si reca all'ufficio di collocamento con un briciolo di speranza che questa
volta non verrà infranto. Inizierà così per lei una giornata davvero avventurosa
che le cambierà non solo la vita ma le mostrerà le meraviglie del mondo
moderno. Come può cambiare la vita in poco più di ventiquattro ore? La Miss
Pettigrew che ha bussato alla porta timidamente non è la stessa Ginevra che
alle tre del mattino si ritroverà sul divano insieme alla padrona di casa a
chiacchierare della giornata appena trascorsa. "Un giorno di gloria per Miss
Pettigrew" è un divertente romanzo senza troppe pretese che descrive uno
spaccato della società degli anni '20 con i suoi lustrini, i suoi night club e i
suoi gangster. In un turbinio di storie di cuori infranti e di feste a cui
presenziare la protagonista, dopo una vita vissuta in maniera morigerata,
scoprirà che il mondo moderno non è pieno di lussuria e di perdizione come
le hanno detto i suoi genitori anzi è un luogo in cui l'amicizia e le risate
sono vere e cristalline come l'acqua. L'autrice Winifred Watson ha saputo
intrecciare alla perfezione gli eventi e le vite di alcune giovani ragazze
ed il tutto ruota perfettamente attorno alla trasformazione della protagonista.
I personaggi sono caratterizzati alla perfezione: Ginevra è al contempo una
donna in cerca di novità ma anche morigerata a causa dell'educazione, mentre le
sue amiche sono le perfette ragazze degli anni '20 spiritose e piene di brio
che coinvolgeranno la protagonista nella loro vita mondana.
Un romanzo davvero piacevole che evoca luoghi ed immagini di altri tempi e ci
fa sognare quegli anni così luccicanti e particolari.
come bambinaia. Sebbene abbia ormai perso ogni speranza di trovare un lavoro
si reca all'ufficio di collocamento con un briciolo di speranza che questa
volta non verrà infranto. Inizierà così per lei una giornata davvero avventurosa
che le cambierà non solo la vita ma le mostrerà le meraviglie del mondo
moderno. Come può cambiare la vita in poco più di ventiquattro ore? La Miss
Pettigrew che ha bussato alla porta timidamente non è la stessa Ginevra che
alle tre del mattino si ritroverà sul divano insieme alla padrona di casa a
chiacchierare della giornata appena trascorsa. "Un giorno di gloria per Miss
Pettigrew" è un divertente romanzo senza troppe pretese che descrive uno
spaccato della società degli anni '20 con i suoi lustrini, i suoi night club e i
suoi gangster. In un turbinio di storie di cuori infranti e di feste a cui
presenziare la protagonista, dopo una vita vissuta in maniera morigerata,
scoprirà che il mondo moderno non è pieno di lussuria e di perdizione come
le hanno detto i suoi genitori anzi è un luogo in cui l'amicizia e le risate
sono vere e cristalline come l'acqua. L'autrice Winifred Watson ha saputo
intrecciare alla perfezione gli eventi e le vite di alcune giovani ragazze
ed il tutto ruota perfettamente attorno alla trasformazione della protagonista.
I personaggi sono caratterizzati alla perfezione: Ginevra è al contempo una
donna in cerca di novità ma anche morigerata a causa dell'educazione, mentre le
sue amiche sono le perfette ragazze degli anni '20 spiritose e piene di brio
che coinvolgeranno la protagonista nella loro vita mondana.
Un romanzo davvero piacevole che evoca luoghi ed immagini di altri tempi e ci
fa sognare quegli anni così luccicanti e particolari.
September 24, 2012
Fountaine [1862 - 1940]
Her journals [written in once a year!] edited by W.F. Cater 1980
She writes in a way that seems hardly dated at all. She thought through certain conventions and decided whether or not to follow them. Having [modest] independent means and not having married earlier, she discovered she liked the freedom of remaining unmarried so she could travel and collect butterflies to her heart's content. It is therefore amazing how much of her journals are [apparently] devoted to pining after one man or another. [What we read here is only a tiny portion of what she wrote, so we are somewhat indebted to the editor for the impression we get of her.]
The other amazing thing to me is how little she seems to question her conventional Anglican faith. She often expresses dismay that one or another person she meets does not have the true faith. On the other hand, this book ends in 1914, and perhaps she questioned more as she got older? I suppose one would say she is not highly introspective, though she does view her situation realistically.
Remarkable combination of conventional values and exotic adventures, forming good relationships with many people of other cultures. The superiority of Britain provides a background, and of course she believes in that as well.
Her journals [written in once a year!] edited by W.F. Cater 1980
She writes in a way that seems hardly dated at all. She thought through certain conventions and decided whether or not to follow them. Having [modest] independent means and not having married earlier, she discovered she liked the freedom of remaining unmarried so she could travel and collect butterflies to her heart's content. It is therefore amazing how much of her journals are [apparently] devoted to pining after one man or another. [What we read here is only a tiny portion of what she wrote, so we are somewhat indebted to the editor for the impression we get of her.]
The other amazing thing to me is how little she seems to question her conventional Anglican faith. She often expresses dismay that one or another person she meets does not have the true faith. On the other hand, this book ends in 1914, and perhaps she questioned more as she got older? I suppose one would say she is not highly introspective, though she does view her situation realistically.
Remarkable combination of conventional values and exotic adventures, forming good relationships with many people of other cultures. The superiority of Britain provides a background, and of course she believes in that as well.
April 18, 2016
Se si vuole poi essere riduttivi, si può riassumere la vita di Margaret Fountaine con sole tre parole: amore, farfalle e viaggi.
A causa della mia frizzante curiosità, mi sono immersa con piacere nella vita di Margaret e l’ho seguita nelle sue avventure.
Ho apprezzato e detestato il suo essere. Ho trovata d’ispirazione la sua emancipazione e il modo liberale con cui affrontava la vita, ma ho odiato il suo innamorarsi di chiunque, il suo modo di civettare con gli uomini e poi allontanarli.
Margaret era una donna determinata, ma non sempre semplice da trattare.
Era da un po’ che non leggevo una biografia e posso dire di essere soddisfatta di questa.
Recensione: http://chelibroleggere.blogspot.it/20...
A causa della mia frizzante curiosità, mi sono immersa con piacere nella vita di Margaret e l’ho seguita nelle sue avventure.
Ho apprezzato e detestato il suo essere. Ho trovata d’ispirazione la sua emancipazione e il modo liberale con cui affrontava la vita, ma ho odiato il suo innamorarsi di chiunque, il suo modo di civettare con gli uomini e poi allontanarli.
Margaret era una donna determinata, ma non sempre semplice da trattare.
Era da un po’ che non leggevo una biografia e posso dire di essere soddisfatta di questa.
Recensione: http://chelibroleggere.blogspot.it/20...
January 4, 2012
Other than being horribly edited (I hated the way it ended with just a page of all the REST of her life - like we didn't want to read about that too?????), it was very interesting. She seemed a rather silly person with all her falling in love but boy did she do some amazing things for a woman of her generation.
September 26, 2012
This book took me back in time to the Victorian era and it is interesting to see it from a lady's point of view. Margaret Fountaine was beyond her time when she travelled alone and had to fend off unsavoury characters while looking for her butterflies. Looking forward to collecting all her other books in the same series.
January 5, 2014
I absolutely loved every moment reading this book!!! My library book was damaged and I had to wait for a replacement after reading 62 pages. Although it was very hard to wait for the new copy, it was well worth the wait. I loved how the author's life evolved past standard conventions. I enjoyed reading about her love affairs and travels. What a life!!!
January 14, 2015
quanta vita, quanta curiosità, quanta forza in queste pagine- una donna che sceglie di essere diversa, nonostante le convenzioni e i tempi e rinuncia, in nome della passione per la libertà, per il suo lavoro di entomologa e per l'amore di un uomo molto più giovane, alla pace del conformismo. diari bellissimi, che suscitano ammirazione e rispetto.
June 3, 2012
An interesting story set in the Victorian era, before (apparently) passports, when travel - in its ways - was both harder and easier. Margaret Fountaine lived a full and adventuous life, although I couldn't help but feel sorry for the butterflies. I look forward to reading the follow-up book.
January 26, 2016
Very unusual story of a Victorian lady who opts not to marry and instead travels the world in search of butterflies. Book is part summary and part excerpts from the 12 books of diaries she left to a museum in Norwich, England along with her butterflies. She is a character.
May 20, 2007
The subtitle of my copy is: The diaries of a wayward, determined and passionate Victorian lady.
November 16, 2008
What an unusual story; what a courageous and independent woman!
Read
October 7, 2009unlike the above tite s mine says the diaries of a wayward determined and passionate victorian lady
August 11, 2010
My hard back edition has a slightly different title: Love Among the Butterflies The Secret Life of a Victorian Lady
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews