I had never heard of this author, so when I saw this book, I was intrigued. After reading it, I'm still intrigued and have more books on my TBR pile, since I'm now curious and want to read at least some of her work. It was a surprise to read about how such a popular and successful author could be almost completely forgotten. Hopefully this book will change that and result in more people reading her work and commenting on it. Many of her titles are available on Project Gutenberg, if nowhere else.

Southworth herself was a fascinating character and although this book is a biography, it read like a novel. It was fascinating to see the parallels with popular writers and influencers of today, as Emma had to carefully curate her public persona, insisting that she only wrote to support her children, which was necessary because she was a 'widow in fate.' She knew how important it was for her to not appear controversial to the public. She was part of a slave-owning family who wrote for an abolitionist magazine, which cost her some friends and created tensions with her family. She was keenly aware of the ways in which patriarchal society harmed women and she wrote about this in her books, along with her many other progressive ideas. Women loved these books and not only was she wildly successful as a result, the people who published her work benefited financially as well. She really was a trailblazer--that and her success irritated some male writers of the time. The book was also interesting in the way that it showed what the literary culture was like at the time.

Rose Neal handled the subject matter well, so one need not be familiar with Southworth's work to enjoy this book. She could very easily fall into the trap of providing long summaries or explanations of each book, which would have really bogged things down, I think. Instead, she skillfully weaves the books through her own narrative, using them to illustrate how Southworth expressed her views. This also means that, because there were no long descriptions of the books, nothing was spoiled and I can look forward to reading them with the background this biography provides in mind. I'm so glad I read this book. I loved it.