The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism

Excellently written. Fascinating subject matter. Often overlooked women who greatly influenced Emerson throw and the era

The Peabody Sisters is an astonishingly detailed biography of one well-connected, if not well-off family, and how their daughters "make good" in the stultifying atmosphere of mid 19th century New England. Most of the details emerge from a trove of collected letters between the three. Making good use of their connections, and with the constant encouragement of their mother, the girls pursue intellectual, artistic and financial independence, mingling with heads of state and the intelligentsia of their time, most notably, the American Transcendentalists. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, eschews marriage, putting her passion into developing provocative theories of education, and is widely remembered as a key figure in the establishment of early education models such as kindergarten. She seems a wholly original thinker and has an apparent endless reserve of energy and capacity for hard work. She saves her family from financial ruin as a school teacher and administrator, as well as publishing books and maintaining a prodigious correspondence with a tribe of admirers. Her two younger sisters, Mary and Sophia, benefit from her trail blazing, as well as her spurned romantic aspirations. Her own flirtations and disappointments lead her sisters to their eventual husbands. Mary weds Horace Mann and Sophia is married to Nathaniel Hawthorne after each man woos Elizabeth, albeit half heartedly. Elizabeth's sisters are really footnotes to her story, and I found the space the author devoted to them was undeserved, after plowing through hundreds and hundreds of pages of repetitive and boring "will they/won't they" fall in love and marry. The theme of the book seems to be that an equal measure of hunger and pride were great motivators for growing these determined and morally straight women. Fears of having to subjugate themselves to unworthy men, who might ill use them was a source of very real fear.Very well written, with 30 pages of footnotes. It ends rather abruptly, with an uncomfortable thud, which led me to Wikipedia to answer the questions of how things turned out in more detail. Did the letter trail run out, or is the author planning a sequel? Having read the history of Bronson Alcott and the Transcendentalist movement, I enjoyed this feminine perspective of the same time and people. There are times when the pages are so full of 19th century American name dropping, that one suspects the population of the United States had to have been about 600 persons in total.

Lucky for me my book group chose Megan Marshall's "The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism," because otherwise I might never had read it. And that would have been a shame.I vaguely knew that the sisters were reformers in education and that two of them were better known for marrying famous men: Mary to Horace Mann and Sophia to Nathaniel Hawthorne; but having little interest in 19th century American literature, I had less inclination to to read about three sisters who dabbled in reform. The more fool I.These women are fascinating. And Elizabeth Peabody--the one I knew least about--is the most amazing of all. I felt like such a slacker after reading that Elizabeth taught herself Hebrew and Greek, read through the New Testament three times the summer she was 13, independently anticipating the theology of the Unitarian-Universalists. It was Elizabeth who, as a very young woman, named the Transcendentalists long before they knew they were the Transcendentalists. Her sisters were almost as amazing as she was. They deserve to be remembered.Marshall does the biographer's turn by giving a chapter each to the sister's mother and grandmother, setting the tone for what would follow. She is to be applauded for writing in a lively manner. I'm not much for biographies, but this one kept my interest to the end. Marshall has a readable, enjoyable style, and she incorporates her subjects' words as often as possible.I recommend this book to anyone who likes biographies, American history, and especially women's history. And anyone who just likes a good read.

First the kindle edition has so many typos it’s insulting to this buyer. While the story is interesting I’m not sold I’m hearing about these women for reasons other than the famous men they married

Follows three talented sisters, each with unique intellects and talent, as they participate in the awakening of the nineteenth century. Provides depth and understanding to American literary enlightenment.

I can't resist books about sisters, I've read more by and about the Mitford sisters than I'd care to admit, and this thoroughly researched book about the Peabody sisters has all the charms that the best of such books can offer--fascinating personalities, in-depth observations of their family dynamics, and an intimate window into the history of their time. It's just as informative and moving as author Megan Marshall's more recent book on Margaret Fuller. Those two books complement each other since they are both about women who were leading thinkers and influential players during the pre-Civil War era when American Romanticism and Transcendentalism were flowering, a time mainly dominated by men.Money was always an issue for the Peabody family, but that seemed to push each of the sisters to excel. Elizabeth had a voracious intellect and her ideas helped inspire the likes of Emerson, Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott. She published their early works, urged them to curb their individualistic philosophies to connect more with others, and has had a lasting impact by promoting the benefits of kindergarten. Mary was a compassionate reformer who married statesman and educator Horace Mann. Sophia, though sickly, was recognized as a talented artist and she married novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. The book's tone is sympathetic, but honest, and the sisters come to life on the page to such an extent that it made me feel like I know them.

I thought this book about the American Bronte sisters would be good, but it wasn't. I found it to be dull, dry and boring. If the book had been divided into 3 sections, one for each Peabody sister, then it would have been a much easier read, instead of the author going back and forth all the time. Overall a disappointing book.