Customer Reviews

Minerva and the Muse: A Life of Margaret Fuller

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Margaret Fuller, a feminist before feminism had been invented, struggled specifically for woman's rights for education and occupation. She believed that all women were made up of two parts: the Minerva, the intellectual side, and the Muse, the "femality" side. Von Mehren's biography tries to capture the essence of both aspects of Fuller, depicting her intelligence, her arrogance, her social awkwardness, her innovation, her impact, and her femininity.

In this book, Fuller is complex, struggling to reach her fullest potential as an intellectual, while serving as a harried caretaker to her family. Von Mehren expanded my own understanding of Fuller, allowing me to see her role outside of her feminist activism. The book brings to light Fuller's role as an important Transcendentalist (though she disliked the label) and as a revolutionary in Italy. Von Mehren does an especially good job in pulling the reader into the story of Fuller's sudden pregnancy and her deliberations to take care of her child in the midst of a rebellion that is not her own. From her upbringing and education "as a boy" to her tragic end, Fuller is presented by Von Mehren as a powerhouse figure of the nineteenth century who still retains a deep humanity.