Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored

This is one of the most astounding books I have ever read. I had never heard of Victoria Woodhull, yet she was a true crusader for women's rights. And vilified for it, by men and women alike. Believing that so much more than the vote for women was at stake, she tackled myriad social issues affecting women that we now take for granted. Nothing less than total release from "sexual slavery" to men would satisfy her. Initially embraced by Susan. B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, they eventually turned against her as being too radical. She was sued, jailed, and yet through her entire life, she supported her rowdy, parasitic extended family and made sure her mentally retarded son was cared for at home. Right down to the end, when she campaigned to raise the hemlines of women's skirts, claiming (surely correctly) that dragging in the streets they were a filthy, unsanitary encumbrance, she was simply incapable of keeping quiet about disabling social customs that kept women "in their rightful place." I found this book riveting and very well written - a real page turner, which is not often the case with nonfiction. Well done!

Victoria Woodhull was one of the boldest, most renowned, and most villified woman of the United States in the 19th century . Yet today many people have never heard of her. Also, what has been written about her has been so biased by attempts to either deify her or demonize her. Thus today's reader is well-served by this factual and chronological presentation of what can be known of the life of Victoria Woodhull. Mary Gabriel puts her background in journalism to good use in putting together this unbiased account of the woman and her times. With chapter titles that consist of place names, months and years Ms. Gabriel takes the reader on a trip through Victoria's live from her birth in Homer, Ohio to her last days on her country estate in Glooucestershire, England. More than half the book is focused on the years 1971-1973 when Victoria, with her sister Tennie C. Claflin, rose to fame in a meteoric fashion. In this brief time they opened a brokerage house on Wall Street and published a news weekly on topics of social and political reform. In addition Victoria was the first woman to address a committee of Congress; she ran for president of the United States with Frederick Douglas as her running mate; and she presided over the women's suffrage movement, a New York chapter of the International Workingmen's Association, and the American Spiritualists Association. Her stated goal was to rescue the women of America from sexual slavery and guarantee their rights to their own sexuality. When she found out that the famous minister Henry Ward Beecher was sleeping with members of his congregation during the week and condemning her politics from the pulpit on Sundays, she exposed his hypocricy. He was never condemned for his duplicity, but she was hounded into jail and ruin until her only recourse was to leave the country. Mary Gabriel does a wonderful job of presenting the complex story, picking through the slanders and exagerations, and creating a readable history of this social reformer and her impact on her times. This is the best account of the life of Victoria Woodhull that I have read and I recommend it highly.

Victoria Woodhull's fight for women's equal rights surpasses that of the other women involved in the movement at that time in its boldness and intelligence (read the previous review). Unfortunately, her modern views on human rights earned her many enemies within the feminist movement, some of which later expunged her from the movement's history. It seems that even today Woodhull hasn't the merit she deserves. She was an amazing woman! Her life story would perhaps make a great movie, far greater than HBO's "Iron jawed angels". Mary gabriel delivered a very well documented account of what truly happened in the second half of 19th century feminist movement. Very inspiring and frustrating book at once.

Mary Gabriel (who I met last spring) has a way of bringing Victorial Claflin Woodhull to life and drawing the reader into the true story of a little known woman in history(even Women's History). Gabriel's extensive research and knowledge about the subject matter is truly impressive. Five stars for both of these remarkable women!

I commend Mary Gabriel's "Notorious Victoria" to the attention of anyone who fancies biographies, history and/or feminism. It's the best biography I've read since S. Ambrose's "Eisenhower." Gabriel's research is tireless, her prose evocative and her sense of perspective canny. A must read!