Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language: A handful of swear words and profanity

Violence: 2 suicides – it is stated that they occurred, but there is no action

Sexual Content: Main character, Mary, kisses a married man and then they have sex. There is a lot of sex going on in the book, as detailed in the adult themes section, but no descriptions of these relations. Brief discussion that Mary is no longer a virgin.

Adult Themes: A 16 year-old girl runs away with her married suitor and lives with him as his wife. Several extra-marital affairs involving different characters. Children born out of wedlock.  There is marital strife and jealousy. Use of opium and alcohol.

Synopsis

Mary Wollstonecraft is 16, bright, daring, and lovely. The daughter of progressive thinking parents, she has unconventional ideas about religion and love for the day in which she lives. She falls in love with the poet Percy Shelley and runs away to Europe with him, although he is a married man. Scandal, heartache, and disaster shadow them through their years together. These darker experiences with Shelley develop a story in her which becomes her most famous work, Frankenstein.

This book wouldn’t make my top 10 list, but it was enjoyable. Although there are no explicit sexual descriptions, be aware that there are multiple extra-marital affairs going on in the book.

©2009 The Literate Mother