A Woman of Opinion
This is a fictionalized autobiography of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the renowned 18th-century woman of letters, traveller, and thoroughly unconventional and eccentric character. While most of the narrative is in her own voice, there are occasional chapters from her sister Frances, who was to develop a severe mental condition later in life. Mary is a feisty, determined figure who bulldozes her way through society. The daughter of a duke, she had an inherent sense of her own abilities and status. The sometimes spiky and difficult relationship with her much less forceful husband, who is a Whig politician and diplomat, is superbly portrayed, and his frustrated anxiety at her devices and desires and their fractured affiliation is also portrayed beautifully, as is their later epistolary-based relationship and accommodation towards each other in their advanced years.
Sean Lusk employs an engaging and pleasing voice in the narrative, with Mary’s wry observations on the quiddities of a patriarchal society, while not questioning her own privileged position. Maybe towards the conclusion of the novel as Mary ages, the story becomes a little pedestrian and loses some of its drive and verve. Lusk includes an excellent and detailed author’s note at the conclusion of the story, where he details what is based upon the known circumstances of Mary’s life and where he has been led to invent plot elements to enhance and provide dramatic structure to the tale. Possibly at times too much has been invented, certainly when he has fabricated and inserted characters that had an important role in his account of Mary’s life that just did not exist. Nevertheless, this is a thoroughly enjoyable and highly proficient novel.
