The Little Dog Laughed

In and amongst preparations for the forthcoming Royal Visit, I've been reading more of the Mary Wollstonecraft book. It's a fascinating subject and Tomalin writes well, so there's much to enjoy. I think my only complaint would be that more of a familiarity with the period is assumed than I possess, despite studying the French Revolution for 'O' level*, and lots of names are thrown out in quick succession, leaving me with no idea who's who a lot of the time. Some background reading would probably repair much of this problem, which isn't really Tomalin's fault, except perhaps in the lack of a quick guide to who the hell is who. And perhaps in her using only first names at times instead of first name and surname, which would help me as I tend to latch onto the latter more than the former when remembering who someone is.

But that's a minor niggle, despite my whining about it at length. It's a great book. Am wondering a little if/when Olympe de Gouges is going to be mentioned, though.

*Where 'studying the French Revolution' consisted of copying from two textbooks (neither of which included any reference to Olympe de Gouges) into my notebook. I got a C in the exam. I think I'm glad that I persevered with History, which up until that class had been a favourite subject, and had my love for it completely repaired by my 'A' level teacher, Mr Greenleaf. For years, I used to pop back to my sixth form college to see him occasionally, and I use skills he taught me all the time.

I won't blame my 'O' level teacher for two years of dull grind that nearly destroyed my interest in the subject for good, as he died shortly afterwards, and was probably very ill at the time. So that's sad.