This is a charming little book. I found the biographical information about the authors, full of scandal, heartbreak, death, insecurity, poverty, opportunities taken and opportunities lost, to be more interesting than the actual profiles of the books on Blakemore's Heroine's Bookshelf. The author also provides a kind of quirky reader's advisory service, a "if you liked this book, you might like this one, too," which lead me on a path to discover new-to-me books in addition to the well-known classics that headline each chapter. This is a book of essays about twelve literary heroines and their authors, focused around a specific virtue to be learned from each one. It was a quick, reasonably fun read, and I liked learning about some of the authors I didn't know much about, but overall it was fairly superficial and there were plenty of times when I disagreed with Blakemore's interpretations of the novels or some of her sweeping statements about the authors' lives or intentions. I think it would have been a stronger work had she been less concerned with fitting each heroine to a specific theme. But at the same time, it definitely made me want to reread some favorite books and try the few she included that I have not read.
Do You like book La Biblioteca Delle Donne (2011)?
Reading this a chapter at a time throughout the year...
—Natnat
