3.5
Lodore
ByPublisher Description
Also published as The Beautiful Widow, Mary Shelley’s penultimate novel explores the web of relationships between three women bound together by the exacting Lord Lodore: Cornelia, Lodore’s estranged wife, ruled by her mother and the norms of aristocratic society; Ethel, his daughter, raised in the wilderness of Illinois and utterly reliant on her father; and finally, the independent and highly educated Fanny Derham, the daughter of Lodore’s childhood friend. Long considered the most Austen-like and socially oriented of Mary Shelley’s novels, Lodore is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand this brilliant feminist writer.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesLodore Reviews
3.5
“It might surprise some people that Mary Shelley, the famous author of Frankenstein, also wrote a regency romance(*), along with several other books. Of course, Lodore was not very popular at the time of publication and has not gained in popularity since. But I was eager to read a more realistic and women-centered book from Mary Shelley after adoring her Frankenstein and, especially, her apocalyptic novel The Last Man — both of which boast an emotional and passionate Romantic sensibility that really appeals to me, but are somewhat lacking in female characters. I was also curious about what her take would be on this sort of “silver-fork” story, which is more similar to Jane Austen (I’ve only read 3 books by Austen, but really enjoyed Emma).
Lodore is questionably a romance — there are central romances, of course, and it follows a lot of the traditional tropes of regency romances — but on the whole it’s more about the mother-daughter relationship between the titular Lodore’s wife and child. The themes are, I would say: the influence of a parent on their child’s development, growing as a person, and the importance of communication and expressing oneself and baring oneself openly to one’s loved ones.
(I’ll try to explain the premise a little, since the blurb is very vague: the strong willed (some might say pig headed) Lord Lodore, who is in his 30s, enters a relationship with a beautiful and proud 16yo named Cornelia. The severe age gap causes an emotional distance to be formed between them, which eventually becomes so severe that Lord Lodore is impelled to leave Britain for the rural forests of Illinois — he decides to take his toddler daughter, Ethel, with him. Therefore, Ethel grows up to 17 without ever meeting her mother. The main plot starts when Lodore decides to return to Britain with Ethel.)
Of course, since Lodore was published in 1835, it includes some elements the modern reader might find disagreeable. Obviously — the age gaps. Although these were integral to some of the relationships, I felt like Shelley was quite disapproving of age gaps in general and she deliberately wrote those relationships to be a mismatch in terms of life experience & emotional maturity. Also, although some female characters became married and pregnant in their teens, Shelley always emphasized their youth rather than trying to cast them as mature vixens or what have you. Through the character of Cornelia, she also addressed the idea that a “mature” woman may be viewed or view herself as unattractive, while that is far from the truth. I feel that Shelley wrote imperfect female characters with a great deal of sympathy.
Cornelia’s character is definitely my favorite. Although she was proud, and her pride cost her greatly, in the end, she didn’t actually have to change her core character traits — rather, she applied her pride to a better cause. I found the relationship between Cornelia and Ethel to be rather touching; I also enjoyed reading about the other relationships in the book.
The contrast between Ethel and her friend, Fanny, is also very appreciated. They represent two different ways of being, both equally celebrated by Shelley: Ethel is loving, devoted, generous, and finds no trial difficult so long as she can continue to with the people she loves, whereas Fanny is very independent (and never gets a love interest), intelligent, and philosophical. Shelley’s main “message” in Lodore is that to “live well,” firstly one must live as their true self and in the way that brings them the greatest happiness, and secondly that one must open their heart to their friends — and I really like that message.
Also, another thing which modern readers may find off putting is the racism/xenophobia. I’ll focus on the main occurrence of this, which was the surprising-to-me anti-Italian sentiment of the omniscient narrator. There is a character who is a young Italian woman and is stereotyped as being a “typical Neapolitan” — quick to anger and a slave to her violent passions, despite her genius and talent. I honestly found this really weird and unexpected. It wasn’t extremely offensive, just… strange, and very reductive of that character (and lbr, she deserved SO much better). Also there is some classism, largely on the part of the characters but also on the part of the narrator. However, I felt like there was some attempt made to humanize lower class characters, and the narrator also gently poked fun at the “1st world problems” of the genteel main characters.
My main complaint of this story is that it feels extremely repetitive and could have been trimmed down significantly. Oftentimes, it feels like the characters are just acting out the same emotional arc over and over.
Initially, I was disappointed by the writing — there were many noticeable typos (possibly not in the original publication?), and the sentences felt more convoluted than I remembered in Shelley’s other books. However, I really enjoyed the style regardless. It’s very flowery and always conjures the right word for the situation. I learned several new words! And, no matter what, I really enjoy a style of writing where you’re almost forced to pay extra attention to everything that’s written and the way in which it’s written — it’s a very calming way to read.
Now, in comparison to Jane Austen, I would say similarities include: the general “silver-fork” setting and cast of characters and problems, as well as the dry humor of the narrator. The main difference is that Shelley’s style is much more serious and I would say self-important — there is a definite moral lesson, and she will explain it clearly to the reader, while Austen more subtly brings up topics of debate. Shelley focuses heavily on the strong and overwhelming emotions of her characters, and their intense relationships with each other, while I think Austen was quite a bit more emotionally reserved and practical; Lodore is also very much a clear narrative of Things Happening versus, well, a bunch of people going to other people’s houses, LOL. Also, like I said, Lodore has lots of romance, but in the end, it’s truly about the mother-daughter relationship. I also think Lodore had much more of an ensemble cast than the Austens I’ve read.
So, which do I prefer? I would say they both have their strengths. Austen’s stories are quite a bit more polished & definitely less repetitive than Lodore tends to be. Her characters can also be quite charming. At the same time, Lodore expresses philosophical ideas and emotional experiences in beautiful language that really resonates with me, and I liked the way the female characters were all portrayed fairly sympathetically.
In my opinion, Austen is truly in her element as a writer of these types of stories, where Shelley, although she does well, is much better suited toward spec-fic stories which can create the elevated sense of reality which her Romantic characters and relationships thrive in — NGL, I was kind of hoping there would be an apocalypse or something at the half way point, just like The Last Man 😛 just to add a little spice. Plus, Shelley has such a beautiful way of describing nature, so I don’t think she should write so many characters cooped up in London!
(Also, it was really cute that Mary Shelley put her husband’s poems as epigraphs.)
(Also, at one point, a character, riding on a carriage, gets stuck in horse-traffic, and thinks that it would have been better to just walk, which I found really funny.)
Next on my Shelley reading list is Valperga. After interpreting her description of Italians as being on the more racist/xenophobic side, I’m a bit interested to see how she’ll write a whole cast of Italians, to see if she really does have a prejudice or not.
(Finally, this is depressing, but I recently learned that Mary Shelley had a half-sister by the same mother (Mary Wollstonecraft) named Fanny, who she grew up with. Fanny died of suicide at the age of 20. I can’t help but wonder if Shelley named one of the most beloved characters in the narrative after her half-sister as some form of tribute, and possibly modeled the character’s personality after her, like what she did for her husband and friends in The Last Man. I think that would be very beautiful if true.)
*it’s not really a regency romance I think but it’s fun to call it that”
About Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley (1797–1851) was the author of five novels and numerous works of short fiction, though she is best known for Frankenstein. The daughter of feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley was steeped in the progressive ideas of the early-19th-century British Romantic era.
Other books by Mary Shelley
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