For good reason, there is a never-ending literature about Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, which Harvey Mansfield in the introduction to his own translation calls “the best book ever written on democracy and the best book ever written on America.”

But there has never been much written on Tocqueville’s wife, born Mary Mottley, a native of England. Now that gap has been filled by Sheila LeSueur and Claudine Martin-Yurth’s book Open Every Door: Mme. Marie de Tocqueville. It’s plainly not the work of a professional historian but of someone who has become a strong admirer of Alexis de Tocqueville, and it presents information and context about Madame de Tocqueville which has previously not been available.