What readers think of Love and Fury, plus links to write your own review.

Love and Fury is a well done historical fiction that tracks the life of Mary Wollstonecraft, arguably the first feminist. The book starts with Mary about to give birth to her daughter, Mary Shelley. The story alternates between Mary’s chapters which are told as the story of her life to her daughter and those of Mrs. B, the midwife, who stays on after the birth as a nurse.

Mary didn’t have an easy life. The daughter of an abusive alcoholic, the family was constantly forced to move as her father attempted to reinvent himself. Her parents were randomly cruel. A scene involving violence against an animal had me wishing for one’s death. Denied the education she so desperately wanted, she was fortunate to meet two men that believed in the education of girls. She pays it forward when she starts a school for young girls. But for all her strength and determination, she remained vulnerable in matters of the heart. While I was familiar with her writing, I had no idea about her life and how fascinating it was. I was especially enthralled by the section when she is in France during the French Revolution.

The book doesn’t pull any punches. It highlights the hardships of women’s lives in the 18th century - the lack of any kind of rights, the worries of childbirth, the horrors of the medical practices of the day, the lack of opportunities for women. The book grabbed me both emotionally and intellectually. I appreciated that Mrs. B was much more than just a secondary character to move Mary’s story forward. Ell Potter narrates the book and did a good job of conveying the emotions of the book.

I highly recommend this book for those that want to learn something when they read historical fiction. My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advance copy of this audiobook.