Mary Wollstonecraft and Henry Fuseli
The update from my book is that currently Mary Wollstonecraft is having long talks with Henry Fuseli, the painter. He is married and eighteen years older than she is, but he is the sexiest person she has ever met. He paints erotically charged paintings and holds forth on the importance of Freedom from constraints. Mary can feel herself changing, loosening up, and drawing close to Henri, but she is frustrated because Fuseli has a wife. Meanwhile, the French Revolution is heating up across the Channel. The Bastille falls. The King and Queen fly to the Tuileries. It’s funny. I’ve taught the French Revolution countless times and now all I can remember is shouting at my students that they Must remember the Tennis Court Oath. Now, all I can remember is my own shouting, not the Tennis Court Oath.
Well, what I mostly remember about the French Revolution is that “it was the best of times; it was the worst of times” and involved a swashbuckler known as “that demmed infernal Pimpernel.” This is so embarrassing.