I had heard good things about this book that takes a broad look at influential people over history, especially but not limited to women and their roles in overcoming a male-centered society.
This is a long book, and one of the things that made it worth reading was the writer’s beautiful writing, a sort of poetic prose that made every sentence worth considering and savoring.
She describes her work as a “project”, and I can understand given the huge amount of information and research that went into this. One of the key features of this book is the author’s ability to tie together people from across history, and see how they influenced each other’s thinking. For the most part I found these connections interesting, but some felt a little forced or vague or unsubstantiated – more like wishful theories than fact.
The scale of this project is huge, and for me sometimes it was a little overwhelming. Within some chapters points of view changed abruptly, and stories are completed in a non-linear way that had a discussion of Darwin’s feelings on hydrotherapy suddenly appearing in the middle of someone else’s history.
There are many key figures examined here, including Maria Mitchell, Johannes Kepler, Margaret Fuller and Emily Dickinson. But I found the section on Rachel Carson the most interesting, and I’m looking forward to reading some of her work in the future.
It was a long read – but overall I thought it was worth the time. If you are a big fan of more of the people I mentioned above, then I’d strongly recommend the book.
Next I am reading The Great Escape by Saket Soni.
