Fascinating! As with all the best works of historical fiction, I learned an enormous amount reading this superbly researched story, while enjoying the experience immensely.

Allison Pataki has a considerable knack for identifying and shining a spotlight on utterly remarkable women about whose lives we know far too little in the modern day. Despite my having amassed quite a bit of information about most of the other members of the Concord “genius cluster,” prior to reading Pataki’s Finding Margaret Fuller, I knew precious little about Ms. Fuller and her amazing contributions and incredible intellect. Pataki illuminates not only the three primary “chapters” of Fuller’s adult life - in Massachusetts, New York and then Europe - but weaves in interesting bits and pieces regarding the lives of so many other important historical figures - among them Emerson, Thoreau Hawthorne and Louis May Alcott in Concord, Horace Greeley in New York, Chopin and George Sand, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She likewise educates us about the Roman Revolution, about which I likewise had only a passing understanding.

And Pataki accomplishes these feats in deliciously descriptive prose, and dialogue that breathes life into these characters now long deceased. Moreover, Finding Margaret Fuller is an at once intelligent and compulsive, accessible read - which unto itself is notable.

I loved it! Highly recommended!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the privilege of a complimentary ARC. Opinions are my own.

This well-researched, well-written historical novel is highly recommended for lovers of overlooked women in history. The only thing I knew about Margaret Fuller is vague—she was part of the early abolitionist and suffragist movement. What a loss, though! A woman of great character and intellectual spirit, educated by her father who knew she’d never get any kind of education in the outside world. (Harvard did not admit women until 1920 and was the first college/university to do so. A separate school for women, the Annex, became known as Radcliffe, established by a woman named Elizabeth Agassiz, in 1879. It gave out certificates to women, not degrees.)
The novel follows her as she searches for a way to support her widowed mother and younger siblings. She journeys to Concord, Massachusetts where she encounters the Transcendentalists: Emerson and Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorn, Bronson Alcott, and a young Louisa May.
Throughout, she returns often to Concord, to Waldo and his wife, to recover and ground herself in a home away from home. The story is told in the first person with a sensitive, reflective tone. I really feel the author captured the spirit of Margaret Fuller, and her novel has made me even more curious to read further about the woman and her era.
Highly recommend historical fiction, worth repeating.

This was a very interesting book about a lady I had never hear of. She was certainly one to be admired as she went though her life always aware of how women should be treated but yet were not. I found Allison Pataki's writing to be both lyrical and poetic in nature. It is so fluid that it easily pulls the reader into time and place.

I enjoyed learning more about Margaret Fuller and her amazing work. She clearly paved the way for so much social reform in the US. However, as interesting as her work is, not much truly happens for at least 50% of this book. In the book's first half, we watch Margaret meet and form friendships with famous writer after famous writer, but nothing much happens to her. She writes, walks, she teaches, complains about money and she puzzles over her strange relationship with Emerson.

The book blurb states that she was “an inspiration to Nathaniel Hawthorne and his scandalous Scarlet Letter,” but her relationship with Hawthorne takes up less than a few pages and involves two short meetings. I don’t understand how their relationship could have inspired anything. It also states that she “spars with Edgar Allan Poe,” but this is barely a blip in the novel. I would have loved to get more of these interesting moments of Margaret's life instead of the mundane moments that make up most of the novel.

The book's second half starts to get more interesting when Margaret begins working for Horace Greeley and travels to Europe. However, there isn’t much plot besides Margaret meeting more famous artists, writers, and thinkers. I enjoyed the romance between Margaret and Giovanni and Margaret’s role in Italy's revolution, but I wish that had been more of a focus than a rushed conclusion.

Overall, I enjoyed learning more about Margaret Fullers and am grateful for her contributions. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine Books for an eARC.

I really enjoyed this book! I cannot believe I have never heard of Margaret Fuller before. I have heard of all the greats - Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott, etc. But how have I never heard of Margaret Fuller when she was of the same circle?

It's also crazy to me that she had nightmares about her death, which indeed came true. She was so young, and was doing so much for the women's movement. Imagine what the world would have looked like today had she lived longer.

This book was beautifully written and haunting. I felt it was a bit long at times, but overall this was a fantastic read!

What a wonderful book about a woman who lived so much history! It is a reimagining of the Life of Margaret Fuller, a historical figure I knew nothing about until I picked up this book.

She knew authors and historical figures such as Emerson, Thoreau, Poe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Walt Whitman, and others.

The biggest thing I didn’t realize, but probably should have, was that all of these great authors didn’t live and work in a silo; they all knew each other. They all had opinions on each other‘s work and they helped or hurt each other. The fact that Edgar Allan Poe was so hateful to her was a revelation.

I highly recommend this book for historical fiction lovers.

4.5 rounded up

Wonderful book by Allison Pataki- a new author to me. Also read the Marjorie Post novel. Pataki is quickly becoming a go to author for me.

Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki, centers on a figure of the 19th century that not many of us have even heard of. I myself had never even come across Margaret Fuller in all my reading of history. However, most will recognize some of the famous literary names that are characters Margaret meets through her journey to find herself.

The real Margaret Fuller is one of the first American women to lay the stepping stones for what would become the Womens Rights movement. She leaves a very different life than her contemporary peers, having been educated to the point that she becomes known as the “Best Read Women of New England.” Her journeys around early 19th Century New England have her cross paths with the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and even a young Louisa May Alcott and a very questionable Edgar Allen Poe. She accomplishes many firsts in her life, including becoming the first women editor of a newspaper, and the first woman to be allowed access to the hallowed Harvard Library.

Yet, we find Pataki weaves a story of a women, who despite her accomplishments and many of them quite notable, still feels adrift in her life. Something is missing for her, but even though other women look down their noses as Margaret for being single and childless-in an age where that is wildly uncommon-Fuller strives to find something more to contribute to the world.

While Margaret Fuiller is a fascinating character, and one who should be more well known for ALL of her many notable feats as a woman in the 19th century, I will say this was probably my least favorite novel by this author. I did find Margaret an obnoxious character in someways, unaware of the feelings of other women around her, and I found the first 2/3 of the book kind of slow going,. However, it is still well written, and brings to life a woman who even now, would be an accomplished figure. I still recommend this novel for fans of Pataki, for those interested in Women’s history, or even fans of those authors we were all, maybe somewhat forced, required to read in English class.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the advance reader copy.

This is a novel, but based on the very real Margaret Fuller, someone I didn't know anything about at the beginning of this book but who I fell in love with by the end. Margaret is intelligent, a successful writer, and someone who is unconcerned in fitting into the traditional role of women in society in the mid-1800s. She spends a lot of time in Concord, NY at the home of Ralph Waldo Emmerson. Also there are Henry David Thoreau, Nathanial Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott. Her ambition, drive, and determination take her back and forth from Concord to Boston to NYC and eventually to London and Italy. Despite being an unconventional woman in a man's world of writing, she is successful, taking advantage of her relationships with men who are open-minded and eager for her to succeed. One of these is Horace Greely. Despite not knowing anything about the main character, I became engrossed in this story right away. I loved following Margaret's life path and by the end, I felt that I knew her very well. The names of famous people sprinkled throughout the book that Margaret came into contact with were fun too, mostly I loved her! I highly recommend it! Thank you so, so much NetGalley for the advanced copy.

What a thoroughly fascinating read of an obscure character in American history! Why Margaret Fuller was so little known is beyond me considering her high profile friendships with fellow transcendentalists of her day...Emerson, Hawthorne and Thoreau. She also mingled with the likes of the young Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederic Chopin, William Wordsworth and many more. Her life was wrought with sorrow and triumphs alike as she persevered through a man's world, longing to be accepted amongst these great thinkers and writers of her day. Certainly her mission was accomplished as a literary critic, author of many works, editor with the New York Tribune, and the first international war correspondent. Pataki introduces us to Fuller with realistic language and dialogue, not embellishing her feminist life with twenty-first century sentimentalities. I am intrigued to do more research, and equally anxious to pick up more of Pataki's works.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Okay, Allison Pataki is officially on the auto-buy list. Also…is she my favorite historical fiction writer now? Maybe? It’s possible. I read The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post and was so delighted by how great it was, I had high hopes for Finding Margaret Fuller and WOW did it deliver! I’m absolutely loving these epic, sweeping, meticulously researched novels about these fascinating women who, for who in the world knows what reason, we haven’t heard of but are so important to our history. I’m obsessed. Nailed it again. Will absolutely recommend.

I am fairly sure I never heard of Margaret Fuller so this was a lovely, surprising and educational story for me. Although written as historical fiction, it is clear from the writing and from the afterward that this was a deeply researched work of love. Margaret Fuller was educated by her brilliant father to the point that in the early 19th century, she was an odd egg. When her father died and she needed to earn money for her mother an siblings, she began to do freelance writing and caught the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson who became her fast friend, perhaps with some romantic attachment that was not consummated since he was married. Thus, in her young adulthood, we meet Thoreau, the Alcott family and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Fuller became known to many as an advocate for women and remained unmarried for most of her life. We know early on that she, her husband and her young son died in a shipwreck and then, Partaki takes us through her story. How she became famous through her writing and ideas, was a successful author, became the first woman editor under Horace Greeley and went off to Europe to be his overseas correspondent in an early bid for Italy to be united. How she did so much on a shoestring, helping her family scrape along. How she met famous people: Wordsworth, Chopin, George Sands, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. And that she essentially disappeared. I am no historian, but I am very fond of Louisa May Alcott and studied a bit about the transcendentalists through the years. I slogged through Walden, read some of Emerson's essays and read various pieces about Bronson Alcott. I read The Scarlet Letter and House of the Seven Gables. Yet Finding Margaret Fuller also helped me find these progressive thinkers and sometimes ne'er do wells all over and to think of them in a whole different and very enjoyable way. Great story. Well written. And added a little more European history to my very poor world history education. Definitely recommend!

This book was great, it felt fresh and not like anything else I've read lately. It kept me intrigued all the way through, I didn't want to put it down.

I love historical fiction and I really wanted to learn more about Margaret Fuller. Unfortunately this novel glosses over all the revolutionary things she did - interview women at Sing Sing and travel the frontier, for instance. I just wasn't impressed with the storyline and it was not engaging.

I really enjoyed Finding Margaret Fuller.
Like Pataki, I had never heard of her before and yet she seems to have accomplished so much -- it's clear that if Margaret had been a man, we would all know her name!
The story is interesting and well written, even though there were times when I wanted to shake her (particularly in Concord at Bush), Margaret was a woman of her time, not mine, so I suppose she should be excused for putting up with jealous women and men who basically cheated her out of money she earned! But thank heavens for Horace Greeley!
Adding to my enjoyment is that a lot of the book takes place in the greater Boston area, where I live, since I am familiar with a lot of the historic sites mentioned in the story.
The last few pages, which deal with her family's death are so sad, particularly since they were practically home. Her manuscript being lost forever is almost the worst part, but at least her name lives on, in part due to the efforts of Allison Pataki.
If you like historical or women's fiction, you must read Finding Margaret Fuller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an e-galley of Finding Margaret Fuller.

Allison Pataki writes wonderful historical fiction based off of often overlooked women. Specifically women who have impacted how our lives are today. After reading The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post, I knew I had to read her newest novel.

I had never heard of Margaret Fuller, despite the famous circles she ran in. Having rubbed elbows with Waldo, Alcott, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Margaret was exposed to some of the greatest minds of that generation and thus became a celebrated thinker and author within those circles. As we followed her during her career, it became apparent she was adventurous, brave, and clearly not afraid of doing things outside the social norms for women.

Finding Margaret Fuller was an excellent read from start to finish, full of laughter, heart break, and the trials of being a thinking female when that was not the expectation.

Best-selling novelist Allison Pataki blends a sweeping historical drama with a cast of some of America's greatest writers and thinkers. In the 1830's, Margaret Fuller, a bright and remarkably well read woman, develops a reputation as a gifted writer while navigating society's narrow expectations of a single woman. She becomes a friend and muse to Ralph Wldo Emmerson, while he mentors her and she becomes part of a circle that includes 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 fictional version of Fuller's true story turns these iconic figures into flesh and blood people with passionate hearts and minds, and she evokes rural Massachusetts and Europe in chaos with similarly evocative detail. Barrie Kreinik's rich, expressive narration is a brilliant match for Pataki's storytelling, both passionate and elegant. It's a remarkably entertaining story about a truly remarkable woman.

I am a long time fan of Allison Pataki and deeply admire the research and historical accuracy she takes care to utilize in each book she writes. Finding Margaret Fuller was no different! I appreciate that she identifies lesser known female historical figures and writes their stories as if the reader is living alongside them; the experience is immersive, educational, but never forsaking entertainment. While this one did not live up to the greatness of her previous book, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post, I grew fond of Margaret and her gang of literary greats. As a former student of English and Music, it was nice to learn a bit more about Thoreau, Emerson, Chopin, and Sand. I have been recommending this one to anyone who admires historical fiction. Thank you Allison for another amazing historical treat; I am not so fond of historical fiction but I never hesitate to pick up Pataki's novels!

I've enjoyed Allison Pataki's books on the lives of other historical women and 'Finding Margaret Fuller' doesn't disappoint. I too hadn't heard of Margaret Fuller, while being familiar with Emerson, Thoreau and Hawthorne. Such a leading lady of the Transcendental period and tragically lost at an early age. Who knows how her future life and our history would have changed had she lived longer. Definitely a must read for women's history.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

Review will be posted on 3/9/24
It's 1836 in Concord, Massachusetts and Margaret Fuller is spending time at Ralph Waldo Emerson's house. He is her mentor and friend, which brings her into a literary social circle like none other with Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the Alcott family. Margaret is known to be highly educated, well-read, and extremely intelligent. She is unconventional for her time in that she has no interest in settling down with a man, but has higher aspirations for herself. Over the years, she has taken on jobs, such as teacher, journalist, writer, editor, and more. Some of these jobs she never was paid for, but once she writes an important book on women, her career takes off. She holds conversations with like-minded women to discuss important issues of the time and before she knows it, she is offered a job at the New York Tribune as the first female war correspondent. Her boss sends her to Europe to write about Italy's fight for independence. While there are many important events that occur in Italy, the most important is meeting her future husband, Giovanni Ossoli. He is a Roman soldier and not someone she would necessarily see herself with, but sparks fly and they end up having a child together. She must escape Italy's fighting more than once to bring her child to safety with the end goal of hopefully getting back to America. Allison Pataki's sweeping saga Finding Margaret Fuller highlights the life of an important woman often forgotten in the pages of history.

Margaret Fuller is captivating. I am not sure Pataki made her entirely interesting every second of Finding Margaret Fuller as some parts were pretty slow. The first half of the book where Margaret struggles to find her place in Massachusetts and jumps from job to job is a bit boring, to be honest. Her romantic tension with Ralph Waldo Emerson definitely kept it interesting, but I knew she had bigger fish to fry as he was already married and seemed pretty needy. For me, the story took off once she was sent to Italy as a war correspondent. I found this really captivating and her life in Italy jumped off the page. By this point, like any good biographical fiction, I was googling facts about Margaret, because I wanted to see what would happen to her during Italy's fight for independence and was surprised by some of the details about her life.

I was also surprised that I didn't know much about Margaret Fuller. She is an important person when it comes to women's rights and Transcendentalism, so I am glad Pataki is highlighting her amazing life in Finding Margaret Fuller. I think readers can agree that Margaret led an important life, one to be remembered, and even though Pataki kept a slow pace at times in Finding Margaret Fuller, I think it was an important and very memorable read--one that I kept thinking about long after I turned the page.

Are you familiar with Margaret Fuller? Are you a fan of Allison Pataki? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.