It draws a picture of the hard life of women in the early years of our country. There was too much about Ben Franklin and not enough about Jane's life. It does picture the close relationship of sister to brother and brother to sister. I learned about the famous Patience Wright.

I would have enjoyed this book for a history class but it was dry & somewhat dull for a book club read. I appreciate what the author was attempting, in part to comment on the lack of material, but the material IS the meat of the story. I do think she did a good job pointing out the hardships women had in that period of our history. However, even though she was avoiding making up a fictional story, I think I would have preferred this book had it been written as a historical piece of fiction.

Amazingly researched and written, very interesting but not an entertaining read. Didn't produce much of a discussion. Was passed on by several members but considered worthwhile by those who read it.

From the hype I was hoping for much more information on Jane Franklin, but got more about her brother Franklin instead. But, having said that for what little information the author had to work with she wrote an interesting book. If you like reading about history and that time period you will find this book interesting. The reader will learn about life during the mid 1700's to the mid 1800's especially for women. The lack of educational opportunities, the lack of good medical care, the lack of and kind of life for women other than being expected to become wives and mothers. I found the last part of the book dealing with history in general the most interesting part. Our book club spent some time discussing history and it's interpretation and how that has changed with today's technology. Not a smooth read, a little slow, a little boring but still worth a read if you are into history and learning about that time period.

WELL-RESEARCHED BUT I HAD TO FORCE MYSELF TO READ IT & FINISH IT. LIKE A DOSE OF BITTER MEDICINE. MOSTLY GUESSING, CONJECTURE & WONDERING ABOUT JANE FRANKLIN; DIDN'T REALLY LEARN MUCH ABOUT HER BECAUSE HER POORLY WRITTEN LETTERS WERE NOT PRESERVED & LOST. MADE ME MORE AWARE OF WOMENS' DESPERATE PLIGHT BUT I WAS NOT INSPIRED TO READ ANY OF THE FOOTNOTES OR ANNOTATIONS AS I USUALLY DO. I WAS SO GLAD TO BE DONE READING THIS.

A different way of looking at the lack of history and historical information about women in our country. The book was very well researched. The especially stark sentence that lets us know no one knows where Jane Franklin is buried brings it all together and resonated with this reader.

I tried several times to read this book. It was too much like a textbook for me and I didn't feel that I learned anything more about Jane Franklin. Very disjointed.