Why read Mary Sidney, Lady Wroth?

Book cover of Mary Sidney, Lady Wroth

Book description

Despite her fascinating life and her importance as a writer, until now Lady Mary Wroth has never been the subject of a full-length biography. Margaret Hannay's reliance on primary sources results in some corrections, as well as additions, to our knowledge of Wroth's life, including Hannay's discovery of the career…

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William Shakespeare

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Why read it?

1 author picked Mary Sidney, Lady Wroth as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Alison Findlay

Author

I was immediately excited to read this book, which is the best biographical study of Mary Wroth, author of the Love’s Victory.

It informed my work on editing the play by giving a meticulously-researched insight into Wroth’s life as an aristocratic woman: her struggles in love (with her first cousin William Herbert), and her determination to write. Importantly, it corrected earlier assumptions about Wroth’s relationship with her husband Robert Wroth.

It has been thought that she was satirizing him in the foolish character of Rustic in her play, but Hannay’s book taught me to identify him with the sympathetic…

From Alison's list on The best books of women playwrights in Shakespeare’s day.