Abstract

May 2020, Volume 48, Number 3 67 personal tragedies Eliza experienced at similar scenario is present in the depic- Despite these problems, this is this time, including the death of her tion of Eliza’s friendshipwithMary generally a successful book. It is par- beloved son Orlando and the unhappy Hays. Paul suggests that the reason for ticularly adept at interweaving history, marriage between her daughter, Eliza the tension in their relationship was literature, and political thought into Ann, and William Rutherford, who a singular narrative, and it makes a because Eliza was a mother and Hays abandoned her and her four children in was not, rendering their relationship persuasive case for viewing women as Barbados in 1818. The chapter con- awkward (90). This conjecture feels important intellectual and literary fig- cludes by recounting the death of ures, even if they were not politically more speculative than evidential, and Eliza Ann, which left Eliza as the pri- active or established authors. Most it would have been useful for the mary caregiver for her four grandchil- important, it is entirely successful in author to have probed the nature of dren. Similar themes are pursued in showing why Eliza’s story is worth their