I really appreciate what Popova is trying to do with this book. Her prose is beautiful and lyrical, and it was fascinating to read about the overlooked/invisible feminist undertones to familiar stories of historical figures. It is also fascinating to see the interconnected, rich and queer web that Popova is weaving. I especially enjoyed the chapters on Hawthorne/Melville, Sophia and the woman she loved (whose name I can't remember right now).

However, the amount of detail is bogging down the book and it is very hard to keep track of the massive amounts of sometimes irrelevant details about a large cast of indistinct characters -- I took a few days break and promptly forgot everything about everyone and couldn't get into the chapter again. This book is maybe for another time.