pidgevorg's review against another edition
5.0
This is a strange book, but definitely in a good way. It's part biography, part literary criticism, part historical analysis, part chick-lit romance novel... all blended together seamlessly into something that feels natural and is a very easy read. The blurb here on Goodreads really doesn't do it justice--it's not a "study of marriage as the smallest political unit" or whatever it says, but more like the story of the romantic lives of 5 famous Victorian writers and their spouses/lovers, told by a third person narrator with a feminist point of view, who takes as a given the Victorians' own assumption that the family is the basic political unit... If that makes any sense. Point is, it's much more complicated than the blurb makes it sound, and unravelling all the different ideas and mix of genres going on here is really the best part of reading this book.
segza's review against another edition
5.0
This book is brilliant. I had to buy a copy since i know I’ll be lending this out and referring back to it many times throughout my life.
happy_stomach's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
4.0
Fantastic storytelling—no specific interest in any of the couples required.
lgiegerich's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating stuff, but kind of got a little draggy at the end.
jannie_mtl's review against another edition
4.0
This book was referenced in [b:My Life in Middlemarch|17883928|My Life in Middlemarch|Rebecca Mead|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1367929648s/17883928.jpg|25047012] by [a:Rebecca Mead|241450|Rebecca Mead|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1369262808p2/241450.jpg] and considers the lives of five Victorian couples, including George Eliot and George Henry Lewes. Fascinating, it looks at the different ways men and women were able to manage within the constraints of legal and social mores, before divorce became possible and at a time when people were welcome in society only if they conformed, no matter how superficially. Other couples considered were John Ruskin and Effie Gray; Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh; John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor; and Charles Dickens and Catherine Hogarth. An excellent read for anyone interested in these times.
cmcooney's review against another edition
5.0
Incredibly readable and thorough analysis of power dynamics within these 5 marriages. The focus are 5 Victorian marriages, however, I think the theme of power in marriage is always interesting especially when thinking about what an equal share of power in marriage looks like.