Finding Margaret Fuller
A Novel
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4.4 • 33 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A “sweeping” (Entertainment Weekly) novel of America’s forgotten leading lady, the central figure of a movement that defined a nation—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
“Whether exploring Margaret’s remarkable friendships or delving into her crucial legacy as a journalist, writer, and feminist, Finding Margaret Fuller promises to transform every reader it touches.”—Marie Benedict, co-author of The Personal Librarian
Young, brazen, beautiful, and unapologetically brilliant, Margaret Fuller accepts an invitation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the celebrated Sage of Concord, to meet his coterie of enlightened friends. There she becomes “the radiant genius and fiery heart” of the Transcendentalists, a role model to a young Louisa May Alcott, an inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne and the scandalous Scarlet Letter, a friend to Henry David Thoreau as he ventures out to Walden Pond . . . and a muse to Emerson. But Margaret craves more than poetry and interpersonal drama, and her restless soul needs new challenges and adventures.
And so she charts a singular course against a backdrop of dizzying historical drama: From Boston, where she hosts a salon for students like Elizabeth Cady Stanton; to the editorial meetings of The Dial magazine, where she hones her pen as its co-founder; to Harvard’s library, where she is the first woman permitted entry; to the gritty New York streets where she spars with Edgar Allan Poe and reports on Frederick Douglass. Margaret defies conventions time and again as an activist for women and an advocate for humanity, earning admirers and critics alike.
When the legendary editor Horace Greeley offers her an assignment in Europe, Margaret again makes history as the first female foreign news correspondent, mingling with luminaries like Frédéric Chopin, William Wordsworth, George Sand and more. But it is in Rome that she finds a world of passion, romance, and revolution, taking a Roman count as a lover—and sparking an international scandal. Evolving yet again into the roles of mother and countess, Margaret enters the fight for Italy’s unification.
With a star-studded cast and sweeping, epic historical events, this is a story of an inspiring trailblazer, a woman who loved big and lived even bigger—a fierce adventurer who transcended the rigid roles ascribed to women and changed history, all on her own terms.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this riveting novel, best-selling author Allison Pataki blends sweeping historical drama with a cast including some of America’s greatest thinkers. In the 1830s, Margaret Fuller, a bright and remarkably well-read woman, develops a reputation as a gifted writer despite Boston society’s narrow expectations of a single woman. She becomes a friend and muse to her mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, and then becomes part of his social and philosophical circle alongside Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the young Louisa May Alcott. But her literary adventures in America pale compared to what awaits her when she is assigned to cover a burgeoning revolution in Italy. Pataki’s light fictionalization of Fuller’s remarkable life turns these iconic figures into flesh-and-blood people with passionate hearts and minds, and she evokes both the contemplative quiet of rural Massachusetts and the wartime chaos of southern Europe with evocative detail. This is a remarkably entertaining story about a truly inspiring woman.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pataki (The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post) takes readers on a trans-Atlantic journey in this winning fictional biography of Transcendentalist writer Margaret Fuller (1810–1850). In 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson offers the 26-year-old scholar a job as editor of his magazine the Dial in Concord, Mass. She accepts, but strikes out on her own several months later because the magazine is unable to earn enough money to cover her salary. After publishing two successful books, including one focused on inequities faced by women, she travels to Rome in 1847 as a foreign news correspondent to witness what she and her boss, Horace Greeley, hope will be the birth of the nation of Italy. In Rome, the perpetually lonely Margaret at last meets and marries a man who appreciates her active mind. In 1848, Italy joins the wave of nationalist democratic revolutions against monarchies across Europe, and Margaret hides in the countryside to give birth to her son. On the way back to Rome to be with her husband, a member of the nationalistic Civil Guard, she is nearly killed in an attack, and she and her family depart for America. Pataki's star-studded and gripping account is full of lush details about the life of an overlooked contributor to Transcendentalism and women's rights. This is one to savor.
