The Lives of Margaret Fuller

A Biography

By: John Matteson

Narrated by: Teresa DeBerry

Length: 24 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

A brilliant writer and a fiery social critic, Margaret Fuller (1810 - 1850) was perhaps the most famous American woman of her generation. Outspoken and quick-witted, idealistic and adventurous, she became the leading female figure in the transcendentalist movement, wrote a celebrated column of literary and social commentary for Horace Greeley's newspaper, and served as the first foreign correspondent for an American newspaper. While living in Europe she fell in love with an Italian nobleman, with whom she became pregnant out of wedlock. In 1848 she joined the fight for Italian independence and, the following year, reported on the struggle while nursing the wounded within range of enemy cannons. Amid all these strivings and achievements, she authored the first great work of American feminism: Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Despite her brilliance, however, Fuller suffered from self-doubt and was plagued by ill health. John Matteson captures Fuller's longing to become ever better, reflected by the changing lives she led.

©2012 John Matteson (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Critic reviews

"Psychologically rich.... Matteson's book restores the heroism of [Fuller's] life and work." (The New Yorker)

Great book, odd narration

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Teresa DeBerry?

I'm not sure why the narrator decided to read this excellent biography as if it were a children's book, but her breathy, shocked, and too exclamatory performance seriously detracts from the book's content, and that's a shame, because Margaret Fuller deserves a wider recognition for her accomplishments. As much as I'd love to, I couldn't in good conscience recommend this version to anyone.

A member of the Concord Circle

Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1810-1850) was a leading writer of the nineteenth century. Her father Timothy Fuller was an attorney and politician. He demanded the best education of Margaret and her brother. It was unusual for women to be educated at the time. By her 30’s she was known as the best read person in New England. She went on to be the editor of the magazine “The Dial”. She was the only female in the Concord Circle along with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry D. Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott (the father of Louisa May Alcott). She taught a year at Alcott’s Temple School in Boston. She was the first American female full time book reviewer in journalism. She wrote books, was an advocate of women’s rights, right to an education and right to employment. She went to Europe to write the biography of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. She became the first female foreign news correspondent and then the 1st American female war correspondent for the New York Tribune under Horace Greeley. She covered the revolution in Italy where she meet Giovanni Ossoli married and had a child. On her return to the United States with her family the ship wrecked on Fire Island in New York yards from the shore during a hurricane. She and her family perished along with the manuscripts of the books she had been writing. Besides being known as a brilliant woman she also was known to be arrogant and bad tempered, she did not suffer fools lightly. Her death at an early age and the loss of her newest manuscripts was a great loss to the literary world of the nineteen century. Teresa DeBarry did a good job narrating the book. If you are interested in women’s literature and women’s history this book would be of great interest to you.