Her Lost Words

January 16, 2023
Thornton (A Most Clever Girl) chronicles the lives of two pioneering authors in this stirring narrative. Mary Wollstonecraft is introduced in 1775 as a teenager who is hungry, homeless, and bloodied at the hands of her father, having tried to protect her mother. She’s rescued by a family friend, Mrs. Clare, a reverend’s wife who had previously nurtured the girl’s yearning for knowledge by slipping her a new book to read every Sunday. Reverend Clare does his part to help Wollstonecraft find a better life by getting her a governess job. Wollstonecraft’s first position is short-lived, after she persuades her charges that their education is more important than finding a spouse, but her independent spirit eventually leads to literary success and influence. She dies in 1797 while giving birth to Mary, who adopts her mother’s perspectives on equal treatment for women and the importance of lifelong learning. Mary eventually marries poet and philosopher Percy Shelley, and writes the novel Frankenstein at 18, about a monster whose anger, fear, and sadness reflects her own inner turmoil. Thornton brings a sense of urgency to the women’s inner lives, as well as a fair amount of insight into their work. Much has been written about the authors, but Thornton does justice to their singular lives. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

February 1, 2023

In 1814, Mary Godwin falls in love with Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Their romance is complicated by the fact that Percy is still married to another, but Mary, the daughter of early feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, is open to being with Shelley without being married. Mary and Percy don't find an easy life together, living outside of typical society and having a number of children who don't live to adulthood, yet Mary also creates literary history with her book Frankenstein. Thornton's (A Most Clever Girl) historical novel about the Shelleys also details the life of Wollstonecraft, who lived unconventionally, working as a writer, and having one child out of wedlock before giving birth to Mary. Thornton's author notes detail how she condensed and rearranged the chronology of Mary Shelley's life, turning her four actual children into two and glossing over Percy Shelley's probable affairs with Mary's sister, while giving more credit to Percy's contributions to the development of Frankenstein than he likely deserves. VERDICT Thornton writes lyrically about the two Marys, and readers will sympathize, deeply, with their struggles to find their own paths. Direct readers who want to learn more about the women's lives to a nonfiction title, Romantic Outlaws, by Charlotte Gordon.--Jennie Mills

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2023
In this engaging biographical novel, Thornton (A Most Clever Girl, 2021) explores the lives of an iconic mother-daughter duo. Mary Wollstonecraft escapes her abusive father to settle in London, where she makes waves as a feminist philosopher. Her interest in the French Revolution brings her to Paris during the Terror, where she has a doomed romance. But it's William Godwin who captures Wollstonecraft's heart, and their passionate relationship is a true meeting of the minds. Mary Shelley never knew her mother, who died soon after her birth, but she spent her youth enveloped in her mother's words. She flouts convention, eloping with the married poet Percy Shelley and giving birth to a child out of wedlock. Shelley writes her first novel, Frankenstein, as part of a competition between herself, her husband, and Lord Byron, cementing her legacy as the mother of science fiction. Thornton deftly maneuvers through her subjects' lives in alternating chapters, highlighting the ways both women defy expectations regarding marriage, motherhood, and women's roles in society. Readers who enjoy sweeping, emotional biographical fiction about iconoclastic women will be hooked.

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