In August of 1797, as her midwife struggles to keep her and her fragile daughter alive, Mary Wollstonecraft, the mother of famous novelist Mary Shelley, recounts the life she dared to live amidst the impossible constraints and prejudices of the late 18th century. 40,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)
"Midwife Parthenia Blenkinsop has delivered countless babies over the course of her career, and when she arrives at Mary Wollstonecraft's door, everything appears normal. But after the baby girl is delivered, the women will spend the next harrowing days together, fighting for the survival of both mother and daughter. Over those eleven days, Mary Wollstonecraft recounts the life she dared to live amidst the impossible constraints and prejudices of the late 18th century, rejecting the tyranny of men and marriage, risking everything to demand equality for herself and all women. She weaves her riveting tale to keep her fragile daughter alive and give her a reason to fight, even as her own strength wanes. Wollstonecraft's urgent story of loss and triumph forms the heartbreakingly brief intersection between the lives of a mother and daughter who will change the arc of history and thought for centuries to come. In radiant, emotionally gripping prose, Samantha Silva delivers an ode to the dazzling life of Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the world's most influential thinkers and mother of the famous novelist Mary Shelley. But at its heart, Love and Fury is a story about the power of a woman reclaiming her own narrative and passing along that legacy to her daughter"-- - (Baker & Taylor)
A Best Novel of Summer (New York Times Book Review)
From the acclaimed author of Mr. Dickens and His Carol, a richly-imagined reckoning with the life of another cherished literary legend: Mary Wollstonecraft – arguably the world’s first feminist
August, 1797. Midwife Parthenia Blenkinsop has delivered countless babies, but nothing prepares her for the experience that unfolds when she arrives at Mary Wollstonecraft’s door. Over the eleven harrowing days that follow, as Mrs. Blenkinsop fights for the survival of both mother and newborn, Wollstonecraft recounts the life she dared to live amidst the impossible constraints and prejudices of the late 18th century, rejecting the tyranny of men and marriage, risking everything to demand equality for herself and all women. She weaves her riveting tale to give her fragile daughter a reason to live, even as her own strength wanes. Wollstonecraft’s urgent story of loss and triumph forms the heartbreakingly brief intersection between the lives of a mother and daughter who will change the arc of history and thought.
In radiant prose, Samantha Silva delivers an ode to the dazzling life of Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the world's most influential thinkers and mother of the famous novelist Mary Shelley. But at its heart, Love and Fury is a story about the power of a woman reclaiming her own narrative to pass on to her daughter, and all daughters, for generations to come.
- (
McMillan Palgrave)
Samantha Silva is the author of the novel, Mr. Dickens and His Carol, and a screenwriter who has sold projects to Paramount, Universal, and New Line Cinema. She lives in Boise, Idaho. - (McMillan Palgrave)
Booklist Reviews
The lives of trailblazing English proto-feminist writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter, Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, overlapped by only 11 days as Wollstonecraft tragically died from postpartum infection in 1797. In her second novel, following Mr. Dickens and His Carol (2019), Silva probes the perspective of another literary icon as she imagines Wollstonecraft, weakened from childbirth, telling, at her midwife's suggestion, her life story to her baby over the course of those precious few days. Wollstonecraft's passionate declaration of selfhood carries readers on a wide-ranging, deep journey as she eloquently voices the circumstances shaping her views—being raised in a large family in which her father abused her mother, growing infuriated by gender inequality—as well as her strong attachments to other independent thinkers and her struggles to escape societal constraints. Wollstonecraft ends up doubting that equality is possible in marriages of men and women. Related with superb detail regarding late-eighteenth-century locales and intellectual pursuits, Silva's portrait of the revolutionary Wollstonecraft generates an absorbing tale of courage, sorrow, and the dance between independence and intimacy that delivers a sense of triumphant catharsis. Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.
Kirkus Reviews
A fictionalized biography of Mary Wollstonecraft, the pioneering 18th-century feminist and radical thinker who was the mother of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley. Wollstonecraft died at 38, days after having given birth to Mary, her second daughter, and Silva frames the novel as the dying woman's recounting of her life story to her infant. Her reprobate father made her childhood a misery, she remembers, but, already rebellious and brilliant, she had a knack for drawing others to her. John Arden, father of her friend Jane, recognized Wollstonecraft's intelligence and tutored her until Jane began to find Wollstonecraft too unconventional (and needy) to continue their friendship-also a pattern in Wollstonecraft's life despite her intellectual emphasis on independence and feminine self-reliance in her writings. At 18, Wollstonecraft began a romantic friendship with tubercular artist Fanny Blood, but Fanny married for financial security and died in childbirth. After a brief career as a governess in Ireland, Wollstonecraft began a writing career in London supported by flamboyant publisher Joseph Johnson, who introduced her to the likes of William Blake, Thomas Paine, and her future husband, radical philosopher William Godwin, whom she initially disliked. Instead, she fell madly if semiplatonically in love with married painter Henry Fuseli, until he dumped her at his wife's insistence. In Paris to observe the French Revolution, she began a passionate affair with American adventurer Gilbert Imlay, a cad not unlike her father. He fathered her first daughter, Fanny, then broke her heart. Finally Wollstonecraft and Godwin reconnected as soul mates. While Silva works hard to fit in all the details of Wollstonecraft's life with accuracy, the most moving moments belong to her fictitious midwife, kindly Mrs. Blenkinsop. Her intermittent narration of Wollstonecraft's last weeks is meant to provide a workingwoman's adoring view of Wollstonecraft and her domestic life with Godwin but also reveals the midwife's private grief and spiritual growth. Silva's strong visual language enhances an otherwise matter-of-fact retelling of Wollstonecraft's brief, eventful life. Copyright Kirkus 2021 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Silva's gripping, meticulous novel (after Mr. Dickens and His Carol) opens as midwife Parthenia Blenkinsop arrives in North London to help Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin deliver her second child. Though the future Mary Shelley arrives safely, a male doctor's treatment for placental complications gives Wollstonecraft an agonizing, life-threatening infection. Blenkinsop, who stays with the Godwins during the crisis, suggests she distract herself by telling the baby her life story. Wollstonecraft's narrative is one of a childhood shaped by a violent, improvident father and unloving mother. Her intense, volatile emotions and unconventionally defiant ideas about misogyny and the patriarchy find few outlets until, at 16, she meets botanical illustrator Frances Blood, with whom she forms a passionate friendship. She is devastated when Blood dies of consumption 10 years later, but her grief bears fruit in her writing, which brings her influence, freedom, and friendship with some of Europe's leading intellects. Her romances—with married artist Henry Fuseli and scoundrel Gilbert Imlay, with whom she bears an illegitimate daughter—are disastrous before she finds a true partner in Godwin. Short chapters written from pragmatic Blenkinsop's perspective balance Wollstonecraft's turbulent story and evoke the class differences as well as the commonalities between the era's women. Silva's heartbreaking but inspiring work captures the despair and joy, convictions and contradictions of an extraordinary woman. (May)
Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly.