Mary Shelley (née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin) (30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus (1818). Events 1363 - Beginning date of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders— Chen Youliang and Year 1797 ( MDCCXCVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1327 - Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen 1851 ( MDCCCLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story The short story is a literary genre of Fictional Prose Narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such Travel literature is Travel writing considered to have value as Literature. Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a Novel written by the British author Mary Shelley She also edited the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Romanticism largely began as a reaction against the prevailing Enlightenment ideals of the day Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4 1792 – July 8 1822 ˈpɝːsɪ ˈbɪʃ ˈʃɛlɪ was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among She was the daughter of the political philosopher William Godwin and the writer, philosopher, and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Political philosophy is the study of questions about the City, Government, Politics, Liberty, Justice, Property, Rights William Godwin ( 3 March 1756 &ndash 7 April 1836) was an English journalist political philosopher and Novelist Feminism is a discourse that involves various movements theories, and Philosophies which are concerned with the issue of Gender difference, advocate Mary Wollstonecraft (ˈwʊlstənkrɑːft 27 April 1759 – 10 September

Mary Godwin's mother died after giving birth to her and she was brought up, along with her older sister Fanny Imlay, by William Godwin. Frances "Fanny" Imlay (legally Fanny Wollstonecraft When Mary was three, her father married his neighbour, Mary Jane Clairmont. William Godwin provided his daughter with a rich, if informal, education, encouraging her to believe in his liberal political theories. In 1814, Mary Godwin fell in love with one of her father’s political followers, the married philosopher-poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the lovers eloped to France, along with Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont. Clara Mary Jane Clairmont ( 27 April, 1798 – 19 March, 1879) or Claire Clairmont as she was commonly known was a stepsister The three travelled through France to Switzerland and returned along the Rhine, by which time Mary Godwin was pregnant. The Rhine (Rhein Rijn Rhin Reno Rain Rhenus is one of the longest and most important Rivers in Europe at 1320 kilometres (820 mi with an average discharge Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt, and the loss of their prematurely born daughter. Ostracism ( ostrakismos) was a procedure under the Athenian democracy in which a prominent Citizen could be expelled from the City-state They married in late 1816 after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife.

In 1817, the couple spent a famous summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland, where Mary conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. Geneva (Genève is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French -speaking Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation In 1818, the Shelleys left Britain for Italy, where their second and third child died before Mary Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence. Sir Percy Florence Shelley 3rd Baronet ( 12 November 1819 - 5 December 1889) was the son of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Frankenstein In 1822, Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm in the Bay of Spezia. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author. The last decade of her life was dogged by illness, probably caused by the brain tumour that killed her at the age of 53.

Until the 1970s, Mary Shelley was known mainly for her novel Frankenstein, which remains widely read and has inspired many theatrical and film adaptations, and her efforts to publish Percy Shelley's works. However, recent scholarship has yielded a more comprehensive view of Mary Shelley’s achievement. Scholars have shown increasing interest in her literary output, particularly in the novels, which include Valperga (1823), The Last Man (1826), Perkin Warbeck (1830), Lodore (1835), and Falkner (1837). Valperga or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio Prince of Lucca is an 1823 historical novel by the Romantic novelist Mary Shelley. The Last Man is an apocalyptic Science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, which was first published in 1826 The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck A Romance is an 1830 historical novel by Mary Shelley about the life of Perkin Warbeck. Lodore, also published under the title The Beautiful Widow, is the penultimate novel by Romantic novelist Mary Shelley, completed in 1833 and Falkner (1837 is the last novel published by the Romantic writer Mary Shelley. Studies of lesser-known works such as the travel book Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) and the biographical articles for Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829–46) support the growing view that Mary Shelley remained a political radical throughout her life. Dionysius Lardner ( April 3, 1793 - April 29, 1859) was an Irish scientific writer who popularised science and technology and edited The Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men were five volumes of Dionysius Lardner’s 133-volume Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829&ndash46 For opposition to all forms of government social hierarchy or authority see Anarchism. Mary Shelley's works argue that cooperation and sympathy, particularly as practised by women in the family, were the ways to reform civil society. This view was a direct challenge to the individualistic Romantic ethos put forth by Percy Shelley and the Enlightenment political theories articulated by her father William Godwin. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century

Biography

Early life

Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in Somers Town, London, in 1797. William Godwin ( 3 March 1756 &ndash 7 April 1836) was an English journalist political philosopher and Novelist Events 1363 - Beginning date of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders— Chen Youliang and Year 1797 ( MDCCXCVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Somers Town, named after the Somers family who owned the land is an area of London south of Camden Town. She was the second child of the feminist philosopher, educator, and writer Mary Wollstonecraft and the first child of the philosopher, novelist, and journalist William Godwin. Feminism is a discourse that involves various movements theories, and Philosophies which are concerned with the issue of Gender difference, advocate Mary Wollstonecraft (ˈwʊlstənkrɑːft 27 April 1759 – 10 September William Godwin ( 3 March 1756 &ndash 7 April 1836) was an English journalist political philosopher and Novelist Wollstonecraft died of puerperal fever ten days after Mary was born. Puerperal fever (from the Latin puer, child) also called childbed fever, can develop into puerperal sepsis, which is a serious Godwin was left to raise Mary, along with her older half-sister, Fanny Imlay, Wollstonecraft's child by the American speculator Gilbert Imlay. Frances "Fanny" Imlay (legally Fanny Wollstonecraft Gilbert Imlay ( 9 February 1754 – 20 November 1828) was an officer in the American Revolutionary War (American War of Independence ^[2] A year after Wollstonecraft's death, Godwin published what he felt were sincere, open, and compassionate Memoirs (1798) of her. Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798 is William Godwin's biography of his wife Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of However, because he revealed her affairs and her illegitimate child, they were seen as shocking and in poor taste. Although Mary Godwin read these memoirs at some point, she was raised to cherish her mother's memory and indeed frequently read her books. ^[3]

Although William Godwin was often deeply in debt during Mary's childhood, the letters of his housekeeper and nurse, Louisa Jones, suggest that Mary's earliest years were happy ones. ^[4] Godwin, however, felt he could not raise the children by himself and cast about for a second wife. ^[5] In December 1801, he married Mary Jane Clairmont, a well-educated woman with two young children of her own—Charles and Claire. Clara Mary Jane Clairmont ( 27 April, 1798 – 19 March, 1879) or Claire Clairmont as she was commonly known was a stepsister ^{[note 1]} Disliked by most of Godwin’s friends, the new Mrs Godwin was quick-tempered and quarrelled frequently with her husband;^{[6][note 2]} but the marriage was a success. ^[7] Mary Godwin came to detest her stepmother. ^[8] William Godwin's 19th-century biographer C. Kegan Paul later suggested that Mrs Godwin had favoured her own children over Mary Wollstonecraft’s. ^[9]

Together, Godwin and Mary Jane Clairmont started a publishing firm named M. J. Godwin, which sold books in the profitable children's market as well as stationery, maps, and games. However, the business did not turn a profit and Godwin was forced to borrow substantial sums to keep it going. ^[10] Biographer William St. Clair writes that "the decision to establish his own business made lightly and without advice in 1805 was to have profound and far-reaching results on every aspect of his life. "^[11] He continued to borrow to pay off earlier loans, compounding his problems; these loans would haunt both his life and his Mary Shelley's. By 1809, Godwin's business was near failure and he was "near to despair". ^[12] However, Godwin was saved from debtor's prison by philosophical devotees such as Francis Place, who lent him money. A debtors' prison is a Prison for those who are unable to pay a Debt. Francis Place ( November 3 1771 - January 1 1854) was an English social reformer. This money still had to be repaid, however. ^[13]

Though Mary Godwin received little formal education, her father tutored her in a broad range of subjects. Somers Town, named after the Somers family who owned the land is an area of London south of Camden Town. Camden Town is the district of London, England around Camden High Street, in the London Borough of Camden. St Pancras is an area of London. Historically the name has been used for various officially designated areas but today it is only an informal term and is rarely used He often took the children on educational outings, and they had access to his library and to the many intellectuals who visited him, including the Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the former vice-president of the United States, Aaron Burr. Romanticism largely began as a reaction against the prevailing Enlightenment ideals of the day Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( 21 October 1772 &ndash 25 July 1834) was an English Poet, Critic and philosopher This article discusses Aaron Burr (1756-1836 the US politician ^[14] Godwin admitted he was not educating the children according to Mary Wollstonecraft's philosophy, but Mary Godwin nonetheless received an unusual and advanced education for a girl of the time. She had a governess, a daily tutor, and read many of her father's children's books on Roman and Greek history in manuscript. ^[15] For six months in 1811, she also attended a boarding school in Ramsgate. Ramsgate is a seaside town on the Isle of Thanet in east Kent, England. ^[16] Her father described her at fifteen as "singularly bold, somewhat imperious, and active of mind. Her desire of knowledge is great, and her perseverance in everything she undertakes almost invincible". ^[17]

In June 1812, William Godwin sent Mary to stay with the family of the radical William Baxter, near Dundee, Scotland,^[18] to whom he wrote, "I am anxious that she should be brought up . For opposition to all forms of government social hierarchy or authority see Anarchism. Dundee (Dùn Dèagh is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and fully named as Dundee City, one of Scotland's 32 local government council Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. . . like a philosopher, even like a cynic". ^[19] Scholars have speculated that she may have been sent away for her health, to remove her from the seamy side of business, or to introduce her to radical politics. ^[20] Mary Godwin revelled in the spacious surroundings of Baxter's house and in the companionship of his four daughters, and she returned north in the summer of 1813 for a further stay of ten months. ^[21] In the 1831 introduction to Frankenstein, she recalled: "I wrote then—but in a most common-place style. It was beneath the trees of the grounds belonging to our house, or on the bleak sides of the woodless mountains near, that my true compositions, the airy flights of my imagination, were born and fostered. "^[22]

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Mary Godwin may have first met the radical poet-philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley in the interval between her two stays in Scotland. Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4 1792 – July 8 1822 ˈpɝːsɪ ˈbɪʃ ˈʃɛlɪ was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among ^[24] By the time she returned home for a second time on 30 March 1814, Percy Shelley had become estranged from his wife and was regularly visiting Godwin, whom he had agreed to bail out of debt. Events 240 BC - 1st recorded Perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. Year 1814 ( MDCCCXIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common ^[25] Percy Shelley's radicalism, which he had imbibed from Godwin's Political Justice, had alienated him from his aristocratic family, particularly because of its economic theory. For opposition to all forms of government social hierarchy or authority see Anarchism. Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and Manners (1793 outlines the Political philosophy of the eighteenth-century philosopher Aristocracy is a form of Government, where rule is established through an internal struggle over who has the most status and influence over society and internal relations They wanted him to follow traditional models of the landed aristocracy and he wanted to live Godwin's dream. As St. Clair explains, "much of Shelley's adult life was to be devoted to a negotiation with his family as the two concepts of stewardship battled for supremacy, the family desiring above everything to keep the estate together, Shelley equally determined to divert as much as he could lay hands on into schemes that would advance political justice". ^[26] Though he was descended from a wealthy family, Percy Shelley therefore had difficulty obtaining cash until he inherited his estate. After several months of promises, Shelley announced that he either could not or would not pay off all of Godwin's debts. Godwin was angry and felt betrayed. ^[27]

Mary and Percy began meeting each other secretly at Mary Wollstonecraft's grave in St Pancras Churchyard: they fell in love—she was nearly seventeen, he nearly twenty-two. For the Saint after whom this church is named see Saint Pancras. ^[28] To Mary's dismay, her father disapproved and tried to thwart the relationship and salvage the "spotless fame" of his daughter (it was at this same moment that Godwin learned of Shelley's inability to pay off his loans). ^[29] Mary, who later wrote of "my excessive and romantic attachment to my father", ^[30] was confused. She saw Percy Shelley as an embodiment of her parents' liberal and reformist ideas of the 1790s, particularly Godwin's view that marriage was a repressive monopoly, which he had argued in his 1793 Political Justice but since retracted. Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and Manners (1793 outlines the Political philosophy of the eighteenth-century philosopher ^[31] On 28 July 1814, the couple eloped to France, taking Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, with them. Events 1540 - Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of Treason. Year 1814 ( MDCCCXIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Clara Mary Jane Clairmont ( 27 April, 1798 – 19 March, 1879) or Claire Clairmont as she was commonly known was a stepsister ^[32]

After convincing Mrs Godwin, who had pursued them to Calais, that they did not wish to return, the trio travelled to Paris and then, by donkey, mule, and carriage, through a France recently ravaged by war, to Switzerland. Calais (kaˈlɛ in English often kæˈleɪ traditional English pronunciation /ˈkælɨs/ Kales is a town in northern France. "It was acting in a novel," Mary Shelley recalled in 1826, "being an incarnate romance". ^[33] As they travelled, Mary and Percy read works by Mary Wollstonecraft and others, kept a joint journal, and continued their own writing. ^[34] At Lucerne, lack of money forced the three to turn back. Lucerne ( Italian Lucerna) is a city in Switzerland. It is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne They travelled down the Rhine and by land to the Dutch port of Marsluys, arriving at Gravesend on 13 September 1814. The Rhine (Rhein Rijn Rhin Reno Rain Rhenus is one of the longest and most important Rivers in Europe at 1320 kilometres (820 mi with an average discharge Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. Events 509 BC - The Temple of Jupiter on Rome 's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September Year 1814 ( MDCCCXIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common ^[35]

The situation awaiting Mary Godwin in England was fraught with complications, some of which she had not foreseen. Amelia Curran (1775 &ndash 1847 was an Irish painter She was the eldest child of heroic barrister and wit John Philpot Curran and his wife Sarah Creagh Either before or during the journey, she had become pregnant. She and Percy now found themselves penniless, and, to her genuine surprise, William Godwin refused to have anything to do with her (although he accepted money from Percy Shelley). ^[37] The couple moved with Claire into lodgings at Somers Town, and later, Nelson Square. They maintained their intense programme of reading and writing and entertained Percy Shelley's friends, such as Thomas Jefferson Hogg and the writer Thomas Love Peacock. Thomas Jefferson Hogg ( 24 May, 1792 &ndash 27 August, 1862) was a British Biographer. Thomas Love Peacock ( October 18, 1785 - January 23, 1866) was an English satirist and Author. ^[38] Percy Shelley was sometimes forced to leave in order to dodge creditors. ^[39] The couple's distraught letters reveal their pain at these separations. ^[40]

Pregnant and often ill, Mary Godwin had to cope with Percy's joy at the birth of his son by Harriet Shelley in late 1814 and his constant outings with Claire Clairmont. ^{[note 3]} She was partly consoled by the visits of Hogg, whom she warmed to and who helped the couple financially. ^[41] Percy Shelley seems to have wanted Mary Shelley and Hogg to become lovers;^[42] Mary did not dismiss the idea, since in principle she believed in free love. The term free love has been used since at least the nineteenth century to describe a Social movement that rejects Marriage, which is seen as a form ^[43] In practice, however, she loved only Percy Shelley and seems to have ventured no further than flirting with Hogg. ^{[44][note 4]} On 22 February 1815, she gave birth to a two-months premature baby girl, who was not expected to survive. Events 1495 - King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city's throne Year 1815 ( MDCCCXV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year ^[45] On 6 March, she wrote to Hogg:

My dearest Hogg my baby is dead—will you come to see me as soon as you can. Events 1079 - Omar Khayyám completes the Iranian calendar. 1454 - Thirteen Years' War: Delegates of I wish to see you—It was perfectly well when I went to bed—I awoke in the night to give it suck it appeared to be sleeping so quietly that I would not awake it. It was dead then, but we did not find that out till morning—from its appearance it evidently died of convulsions—Will you come—you are so calm a creature & Shelley is afraid of a fever from the milk—for I am no longer a mother now. ^[46]

The loss of her child induced an acute depression in Mary Godwin, who was haunted by visions of the baby; but she conceived again and had recovered by the summer. ^[47] With a revival in Percy Shelley's finances after the death of his grandfather, Sir Bysshe Shelley, the couple holidayed in Torquay and then rented a two-storey cottage at Bishopsgate, on the edge of Windsor Great Park. Torquay (tɔrˈkiː is a town in the Unitary authority of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. See Bishopsgate Insurance for the Australian insurance company bankrupted in 1982 Windsor Great Park (locally referred to simply as the Great Park) is a large Deer Park of 5000 acres to the south of the town of Windsor ^[48] Little is known about this period in Mary Godwin's life, since her journal from May 1815 to July 1816 is lost. At Bishopsgate, Percy wrote his poem Alastor; and on 24 January 1816, Mary gave birth to a second child, William, named after her father and soon nicknamed "Willmouse". Alastor or The Spirit of Solitude is a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1815 and first published in 1816 Events 41 - Gaius Caesar (Caligula, known for his eccentricity and cruel Despotism, is Assassinated by his disgruntled Year 1816 ( MDCCCXVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year

Lake Geneva and Frankenstein

In May 1816, Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, and their son travelled to Geneva with Claire Clairmont. Geneva (Genève is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French -speaking They planned to spend the summer with the poet Lord Byron, whose recent affair with Claire had left her pregnant. ^[49] The party arrived at Geneva on 14 May 1816, where Mary called herself "Mrs Shelley", and Byron joined them on 25 May, with his young physician, John William Polidori. Events 1264 - Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured in France making Simon de Montfort the Year 1816 ( MDCCCXVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Events 1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo Spain back from the Moors. ^[50] Byron rented the Villa Diodati, close to Lake Geneva at the village of Cologny, and Percy Shelley a smaller building called Maison Chapuis on the waterfront nearby. The Villa Diodati is a manor in Cologny close to Lake Geneva. Lake Geneva or Lake Léman (Lac Léman Léman Lac de Genève is the second largest freshwater Lake in Central Europe in terms of surface area (after Cologny is a municipality in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. ^[51] They spent their time writing, boating on the lake, and talking late into the night. ^[52]

"It proved a wet, ungenial summer", Mary Shelley remembered in 1831, "and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house". ^{[53][note 5]} Amongst other subjects, the conversation turned to the experiments of the 18th-century natural philosopher and poet Erasmus Darwin, who was said to have animated dead matter, and to galvanism and the feasibility of returning a corpse or assembled body parts to life. For the current in the 19th century German idealism see Naturphilosophie Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature (from Erasmus Darwin (12 December 1731&ndash18 April 1802 was an English Physician, natural philosopher physiologist inventor and poet Biology, galvanism is the contraction of a Muscle that is stimulated by an electric current. ^[54] Sitting around a log fire at Byron's villa, the company also amused themselves by reading German ghost stories, prompting Byron to suggest they each write their own supernatural tale. The term supernatural or supranatural ( Latin: super, supra "above" + natura "nature" pertains to entities events Shortly afterwards, in a waking dream, Mary Godwin conceived the idea for Frankenstein:

I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world". [55][note 6]

She began writing what she assumed would be a short story. With Percy Shelley's encouragement, she expanded this tale into her first novel, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818. Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a Novel written by the British author Mary Shelley ^[56] She later described that summer in Switzerland as the moment "when I first stepped out from childhood into life". ^[57]

Bath and Marlow

On their return to England in September, Mary and Percy moved—with Claire Clairmont, who took lodgings nearby—to Bath, where they hoped to keep Claire’s pregnancy secret. Bath is a city in Somerset in the south west of England It is situated west of London and south-east of Bristol. ^[58] At Cologny, Mary Godwin had received two letters from her half-sister, Fanny Imlay, who alluded to her "unhappy life"; on 9 October, Fanny wrote an "alarming letter" from Bristol, which sent Percy Shelley racing off to search for her, without success. Frances "Fanny" Imlay (legally Fanny Wollstonecraft Events 768 - Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks. On the morning of 10 October, Fanny Imlay was found dead in a room at a Swansea inn, along with a suicide note and a laudanum bottle. Events 680 - Battle of Karbala: Shia Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is decapitated Swansea ( Abertawe "mouth of the Tawe " is a city and county in Wales. Laudanum (ˈlȯd-nəm or ˈlȯ-də-nəm also known as Opium Tincture or Tincture of Opium, is an Alcoholic herbal preparation On 10 December, Percy Shelley's wife, Harriet, was discovered drowned in the Serpentine, a lake in Hyde Park, London. Events 1041 - Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V The Serpentine (also known as the Serpentine River) is a 28 acre (11 ha recreational lake in Hyde Park London, England, created in 1730 Hyde Park is one of the largest Parks in central London, England and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner ^[59] Both suicides were hushed up. Harriet’s family obstructed Percy Shelley's efforts—fully supported by Mary Godwin—to assume custody of his two children by Harriet. His lawyers advised him to improve his case by marrying; so he and Mary, who was pregnant again, married on 30 December 1816 at St Mildred's Church, Bread Street, London. Events 1460 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield. 1816 - The Treaty of St Year 1816 ( MDCCCXVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Bread Street is a ward of the City of London and is named from its principal street which was antiently (anciently the bread market for by the records it appears that in 1302 ^[60] Mr and Mrs Godwin were present: the marriage ended the family rift. ^[61]

Claire Clairmont gave birth to a baby girl on 13 January, at first called Alba, later Allegra. Events 532 - Nika riots in Constantinople. 888 - Odo Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks Clara Allegra Byron ( January 12, 1817 &ndash April 20, 1822) initially named Alba, meaning " Dawn," or ^{[62][note 7]} In March of that year, the Chancery Court ruled Percy Shelley morally unfit to assume custody of his children and later placed them with a clergyman's family. The Court of Chancery was one of the courts of equity in England and Wales. ^[63] Also in March, the Shelleys moved with Claire and Alba to Albion House, a large, damp building at Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on the river Thames, where Mary Shelley gave birth to her third child, Clara, on 2 September. Marlow (previously Great Marlow or Chipping Marlow) is a town and Civil parish within Wycombe district in south Buckinghamshire, England The Thames ( is a major River flowing through southern England. Events 44 BC - Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion. At Marlow, they entertained their new friends Marianne and Leigh Hunt, worked hard at their writing, and often discussed politics. James Henry Leigh Hunt ( October 19, 1784 &ndash August 28, 1859) was an English critic essayist poet and writer ^[64]

Early in the summer of 1817, Mary Shelley finished Frankenstein, which was published anonymously in January 1818. Reviewers and readers assumed that Percy Shelley was the author, since the book was published with his preface and dedicated to his political hero William Godwin. ^[65] At Marlow, Mary edited the joint journal of the group's 1814 continental journey, adding material written in Switzerland in 1816, along with Percy's poem "Mont Blanc". "Mont Blanc Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni" is an Ode by the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The result was the History of a Six Weeks' Tour, published in November 1817. That autumn, Percy Shelley often lived away from home in London to evade creditors. The threat of a debtor's prison, combined with their ill health and fears of losing custody of their children, contributed to the couple's decision to leave England for Italy on 12 March 1818, taking Claire Clairmont and Alba with them. A debtors' prison is a Prison for those who are unable to pay a Debt. Events 538 - Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving Year 1818 ( MDCCCXVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common ^[66] They had no intention of coming back. ^[67]

Italy

One of the party's first tasks on arriving in Italy was to hand Alba over to Byron, who was living in Venice. Malaria is a vector -borne Infectious disease caused by Protozoan Parasites It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions including Amelia Curran (1775 &ndash 1847 was an Irish painter She was the eldest child of heroic barrister and wit John Philpot Curran and his wife Sarah Creagh Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the He had agreed to raise her so long as Claire had nothing more to do with her. ^[68] The Shelleys then embarked on a roving existence, never settling in any one place for long. ^{[69][note 8]} Along the way, they accumulated a circle of friends and acquaintances who often moved with them. The couple devoted their time to writing, reading, learning, sightseeing, and socialising. The Italian adventure was, however, blighted for Mary Shelley by the deaths of both her children—Clara, in September 1818 in Venice, and William, in June 1819 in Rome. ^{[70][note 9]} These losses left her in a deep depression that isolated her from Percy Shelley,^[71] who wrote in his notebook:

My dearest Mary, wherefore hast thou gone,

And left me in this dreary world alone?

Thy form is here indeed—a lovely one—

But thou art fled, gone down a dreary road

That leads to Sorrow’s most obscure abode.

For thine own sake I cannot follow thee

Do thou return for mine. ^[72]

For a time, Mary Shelley found comfort only in her writing. ^[73] The birth of her fourth child, Percy Florence, on 12 November 1819, finally lifted her spirits,^[74] though she nursed the memory of her lost children till the end of her life. Sir Percy Florence Shelley 3rd Baronet ( 12 November 1819 - 5 December 1889) was the son of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Frankenstein Events 764 - Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days Year 1819 ( MDCCCXIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar in the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year ^[75]

Italy provided the Shelleys, Byron, and other exiles with a political freedom unattainable at home. Despite its associations with personal loss, Italy became for Mary Shelley "a country which memory painted as paradise". ^[76] Their Italian years were a time of intense intellectual and creative activity for both Shelleys. While Percy composed a series of major poems, Mary wrote the autobiographical novel Matilda, the historical novel Valperga, and the plays Proserpine and Midas. Mary Shelley wrote her second novel Mathilda, or Matilda, on the common Romantic themes of Incest and suicide between August 1819 and February An historical novel is a Novel in which the story is set among historical events or more generally in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the Author Valperga or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio Prince of Lucca is an 1823 historical novel by the Romantic novelist Mary Shelley. Proserpine is a Verse drama written for children by the Romantic writers Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Midas is a Verse drama in Blank verse by the Romantic writers Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary wrote Valperga to help alleviate her father's financial difficulties, as Percy refused to assist him further. ^[77] She was often physically ill, however, and prey to depressions. She also had to cope with Percy’s interest in other women, such as Sophia Stacey, Emilia Viviani, and Jane Williams. Sophia Stacey (1791 &ndash 1874 was a friend of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, to whom he dedicated the Ode which begins Thou art fair and few are fairer ^[78] Since Mary Shelley shared his belief in the non-exclusivity of marriage, she formed emotional ties of her own among the men and women of their circle. She became particularly fond of the Greek revolutionary Prince Alexander Mavrocordato and of Jane and Edward Williams. Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos ( Αλέξανδρος Μαυροκορδάτος) (born February 11, 1791, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire Edward Ellerker Williams ( April 22, 1793 - July 8, 1822) was a Bengal army officer who became friends with Percy Bysshe Shelley ^{[79][note 10]}

In December 1818, the Shelleys travelled south with Claire Clairmont and their servants to Naples, where they stayed for three months, receiving almost no visitors. Naples ( Napoli, Neapolitan: Nàpule) is a historic City in southern Italy, the Capital of the ^[80] In 1820, they found themselves plagued by accusations and threats from Paolo and Elise Foggi, former servants whom Percy Shelley had dismissed in Naples shortly after the Foggis had married. ^[81] The pair revealed that on 27 February 1819 in Naples, Percy Shelley had registered as his child by Mary Shelley a two-month-old baby girl named Elena Adelaide Shelley. Events 1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation Year 1819 ( MDCCCXIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar in the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year ^[82] The Foggis also claimed that Claire Clairmont was the baby's mother. ^[83] Biographers have offered various interpretations of these events: that Percy Shelley decided to adopt a local child; that the baby was his by Elise, Claire, or an unknown woman; or that she was Elise’s by Byron. ^{[84][note 11]} Mary Shelley insisted she would have known if Claire had been pregnant, but it is unclear how much she really knew. ^[85] The events in Naples, a city Mary Shelley later called a paradise inhabited by devils,^[86] remain shrouded in mystery. ^{[note 12]} The only certainty is that she herself was not the child’s mother. ^[87] Elena Adelaide Shelley died in Naples on 9 June 1820. Events 53 - Roman Emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia 62 - Claudia Octavia commits Year 1820 ( MDCCCXX) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year ^[88]

In the summer of 1822, a pregnant Mary moved with Percy, Claire, and Edward and Jane Williams to the isolated Villa Magni, at the sea's edge near the hamlet of San Terenzo in the Bay of Lerici. Clara Mary Jane Clairmont ( 27 April, 1798 – 19 March, 1879) or Claire Clairmont as she was commonly known was a stepsister Amelia Curran (1775 &ndash 1847 was an Irish painter She was the eldest child of heroic barrister and wit John Philpot Curran and his wife Sarah Creagh Lerici is a town and commune in the Province of La Spezia in Liguria (northern Italy) part of the Italian Riviera. Once they were settled in, Percy broke the "evil news" to Claire that her daughter Allegra had died of typhus in a convent at Bagnacavallo. Typhus is any of several similar diseases caused by Louse -borne bacteria Bagnacavallo is a town in the Province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. ^[89] Mary Shelley was distracted and unhappy in the cramped and remote Villa Magni, which she came to regard as a dungeon. ^[90] On 16 June, she miscarried, losing so much blood that she nearly died. Events 1487 - Battle of Stoke Field, the last dying breath of the Wars of the Roses. Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the natural or spontaneous end of a Pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving generally defined Rather than wait for a doctor, Percy sat her in a bath of ice to staunch the bleeding, an act the doctor later told him saved her life. ^[91] All was not well between the couple that summer, however, and Percy spent more time with Jane Williams than with his depressed and debilitated wife. ^[92] Most of the short poems Shelley wrote at San Terenzo were addressed to Jane, and not to Mary.

The coast offered Percy Shelley and Edward Williams the chance to enjoy their "perfect plaything for the summer", a new sailing boat. ^[93] The boat had been designed by Daniel Roberts and Edward Trelawny, an admirer of Byron's who had joined the party in January 1822. Edward John Trelawny ( November 13, 1792 &ndash August 13, 1881) was a Biographer, Novelist, and Adventurer and ^[94] On 1 July 1822, Percy Shelley, Edward Williams, and Captain Daniel Roberts sailed south down the coast to Livorno. "July 1st" redirects here For the Ayumi Hamasaki song see H (song. Year 1822 (MDCCCXXII was a Common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting on Sunday of the "Leghorn" redirects here For the breed of chicken see Leghorn chicken. There Percy Shelley discussed with Byron and Leigh Hunt the launch of a radical magazine called The Liberal. The Liberal magazine is a quarterly literary and political publication "devoted to promoting liberalism around the world" ^[95] On 8 July, he and Edward Williams set out on the return journey to Lerici with their eighteen-year-old boatboy, Charles Vivian. Events 939 - The Major Occultation or Ghaybat el-Kubra of Muhammad al-Mahdi 1099 - First Crusade: 15000 ^[96] They never reached their destination. A letter arrived at Villa Magni from Hunt to Percy Shelley, dated 8 July, saying, "pray write to tell us how you got home, for they say you had bad weather after you sailed monday & we are anxious". Events 939 - The Major Occultation or Ghaybat el-Kubra of Muhammad al-Mahdi 1099 - First Crusade: 15000 ^[97] "The paper fell from me," Mary told a friend later. "I trembled all over". ^[98] She and Jane Williams rushed desperately to Livorno and then to Pisa in the fading hope that their husbands were still alive. Ten days after the storm, three bodies washed up on the coast near Viareggio, mid-way between Livorno and Lerici. Viareggio (which means "way of the kings" is a city located in northern Tuscany, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Trelawny, Byron, and Hunt cremated Percy Shelley’s corpse on the beach at Viareggio. Cremation is the act of reducing a Corpse by burning, generally in a crematorium furnace or crematory fire ^[99]

Return to England and writing career

[Frankenstein] is the most wonderful work to have been written at twenty years of age that I ever heard of. You are now five and twenty. And, most fortunately, you have pursued a course of reading, and cultivated your mind in a manner the most admirably adapted to make you a great and successful author. If you cannot be independent, who should be?

— William Godwin to Mary Shelley[100]

After her husband's death, Mary Shelley lived for a year with Leigh Hunt and his family in Genoa, where she often saw Byron and transcribed his poems. Genoa ( Genova, ˈdʒɛːnova in Italian; Zena in Genoese and Ligurian; Genua in Latin and archaically in English She resolved to live by her pen and for her son, but her financial situation was precarious. On 23 July 1823, she left Genoa for England and stayed with her father and stepmother in the Strand until a small advance from her father-in-law enabled her to lodge nearby. Events 1632 - Three hundred colonists bound for New France depart from Dieppe France. Year 1823 ( MDCCCXXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common The Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. ^[101] Sir Timothy Shelley had at first agreed to support his grandson, Percy Florence, only if he were handed over to an appointed guardian. Mary Shelley rejected this idea instantly. ^[102] She managed instead to wring out of Sir Timothy a limited and repayable allowance, but to the end of his days he refused to meet her in person and dealt with her only through lawyers. Mary Shelley busied herself with editing her husband's poems, among other literary endeavors, but concern for her son restricted her options. Sir Timothy threatened to stop the allowance if any biography of the poet were published. ^[103] In 1826, Percy Florence became the legal heir of the Shelley estate after the death of Charles Shelley, his father's son by Harriet Shelley. Sir Timothy raised Mary's allowance from £100 a year to £250 but remained as difficult as ever. ^[104] Mary Shelley enjoyed the stimulating society of William Godwin's circle, but poverty prevented her from socialising as she wished. She also felt ostracised by those who, like Sir Timothy, still disapproved of her elopement and relationship with Percy Bysshe Shelley. ^[105]

In the summer of 1824, Mary Shelley moved to Kentish Town in north London to be near Jane Williams. Kentish Town is an area of north London, England in the London Borough of Camden. She may have been, in the words of her biographer Muriel Spark, "a little in love" with Jane. Dame Muriel Spark, DBE ( February 1, 1918 &ndash April 13, 2006) was an award-winning Scottish Novelist. However, Jane later disillusioned her by gossiping that Percy had preferred her to Mary, owing to Mary's inadequacy as a wife. ^[106] At around this time, Mary Shelley was working on her novel, The Last Man (1826); and she assisted a series of friends who were writing memoirs of Byron and Percy Shelley—the beginnings of her attempts to immortalise her husband. The Last Man is an apocalyptic Science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, which was first published in 1826 ^[107] She also met the American actor John Howard Payne and the American writer Washington Irving. John Howard Payne ( 9 June, 1791 - 10 April, 1852) was an American Actor, Playwright, Author and Statesman Washington Irving (April 3 1783 – November 28 1859 was an American Author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th Payne fell in love with her and in 1826 asked her to marry him. She refused, saying that after being married to one genius, she could only marry another. Payne then tried without success to talk his friend Irving into proposing. Mary Shelley was aware of Payne's endeavours, but how seriously she took them is unclear. ^[108]

In 1827, Mary Shelley was party to a scheme that enabled her friend Isabel Robinson and Isabel's lover, Maria Mary Dods, who wrote under the name David Lyndsay, to embark on a life together in France as man and wife. ^[110] With the help of Payne, whom she kept in the dark about the details, Mary Shelley obtained false passports for the couple, risking her own reputation. ^[111] In 1828, she fell ill with smallpox while visiting the couple in Paris. Smallpox is an Infectious disease unique to humans caused by either of two virus variants named Variola major and Variola minor. ^[112]

During the period 1827–40, Mary Shelley was busy as an editor and writer. She wrote the novels Perkin Warbeck (1830), Lodore (1835), and Falkner (1837). The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck A Romance is an 1830 historical novel by Mary Shelley about the life of Perkin Warbeck. Lodore, also published under the title The Beautiful Widow, is the penultimate novel by Romantic novelist Mary Shelley, completed in 1833 and Falkner (1837 is the last novel published by the Romantic writer Mary Shelley. She contributed five volumes of Lives of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French authors to Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia. The Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men were five volumes of Dionysius Lardner’s 133-volume Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829&ndash46 Dionysius Lardner ( April 3, 1793 - April 29, 1859) was an Irish scientific writer who popularised science and technology and edited The Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men were five volumes of Dionysius Lardner’s 133-volume Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829&ndash46 She also wrote stories for ladies' magazines. She was still helping to support her father, and they looked out for publishers for each other. ^[113] In 1830, she sold the copyright for a new edition of Frankenstein for £60 to Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley for their new Standard Novels series. ^[114] After Godwin's death in 1836 at the age of eighty, she began assembling his letters and a memoir for publication, as he had requested in his will; after two years of work, however, she abandoned the project. ^[115] Throughout this period, she also championed Percy Shelley's poetry, promoting its publication and quoting it in her writing. By 1837, Percy's works were well-known and increasingly admired. ^[116] In the summer of 1838 Edward Moxon, the publisher of Tennyson and the son-in-law of Charles Lamb, proposed publishing a collected works of Percy Shelley. Edward Moxon ( 12 December, 1801 - 3 June, 1858) was a British Poet and Publisher. Charles Lamb is the name of Charles Lamb (writer (1775-1834 a British essayist Charles Lamb (politician (1891-1965 a Canadian Mary was paid £500 to edit the Poetical Works (1838), which Sir Timothy insisted should not include a biography. ^[117]

Mary Shelley continued to treat potential romantic partners with caution. In 1828, she met and flirted with the French writer Prosper Mérimée, but her one surviving letter to him appears to be a deflection of his declaration of love. Prosper Mérimée ( September 28, 1803 &ndash September 23, 1870) was a French dramatist historian, archaeologist ^[118] She was delighted when her old friend from Italy, Edward Trelawny, returned to England, and they joked about marriage in their letters. Edward John Trelawny ( November 13, 1792 &ndash August 13, 1881) was a Biographer, Novelist, and Adventurer and ^[119] Their friendship had altered, however, following her refusal to cooperate with his proposed biography of Percy Shelley; and he later reacted angrily to her omission of the atheistic section of Queen Mab from Percy Shelley's poems. Queen Mab is a Fairy referred to in Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. ^[120] Oblique references in her journals, from the early 1830s until the early 1840s, suggest that Mary Shelley had feelings for the radical politician Aubrey Beauclerk, who may have disappointed her by twice marrying others. Aubrey William de Vere Beauclerk ( 20 February 1801 &ndash 1 February 1854) was the son of Charles George Beauclerk and Emily Charlotte Ogilvie ^{[121][note 13]}

Mary Shelley's first concern during these years was the welfare of Percy Florence. She honoured her late husband's wish that his son attend public school, and, with Sir Timothy's grudging help, had him educated at Harrow. An independent school in the United Kingdom is a school relying upon private sources for all of its funding predominantly in the form of school fees To avoid boarding fees, she moved to Harrow on the Hill herself so that Percy could attend as a day scholar. Harrow on the Hill is an area of north west London, England and part of the London Borough of Harrow. ^[122] Though Percy went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, and dabbled in politics and the law, he showed no sign of his parents' gifts. Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. ^[123] However, he was devoted to his mother, and after he left university in 1841, he came to live with her.

Final years and death

In 1840 and 1842, mother and son travelled together on the continent, journeys that Mary Shelley recorded in Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842 and 1843 (1844). ^[124] In 1844, Sir Timothy Shelley finally died at the age of ninety, "falling from the stalk like an overblown flower", as Mary put it. ^[125] For the first time, she and her son were financially independent, though the estate proved less valuable than they had hoped. ^[126]

In the mid 1840s, Mary Shelley found herself the target of a series of blackmailers. In 1845, at Italian political exile called Gatteschi, whom she had met in Paris, threatened to publish letters she had sent him. A friend of her son bribed a police chief into seizing Gatteschi's papers, including the letters, which were then destroyed. ^[128] Shortly afterwards, Mary Shelley did buy some letters written by herself and Percy Bysshe Shelley from a man calling himself G. Byron and posing as the illegitimate son of the late Lord Byron. ^[129] Also in 1845, Percy Bysshe Shelley's cousin Thomas Medwin approached her claiming to have written a damaging biography of Percy Shelley. He said he would suppress it in return for £250, but Mary Shelley refused. ^{[130][note 14]}

In 1848, Percy Florence married Jane Gibson St John. The marriage was a happy one, and Mary Shelley and Jane were fond of each other. ^[131] Mary lived with her son and daughter-in-law at Field Place, Sussex, the Shelleys' ancestral home, and at Chester Square, London, and accompanied them on travels abroad. Sussex is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. Chester Square is a small residential garden square located in London 's exclusive Belgravia district and part of the area originally developed by the Grosvenor

Mary Shelley's last years were blighted by illness. From 1839, she suffered from headaches and bouts of paralysis in parts of her body, which sometimes prevented her from reading and writing. ^[132] On 1 February 1851, at Chester Square, she died of a suspected brain tumour at the age of fifty-three. Events 1327 - Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen 1851 ( MDCCCLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year According to Jane Shelley, Mary Shelley had asked to be buried with her mother and father; but Percy and Jane, judging the graveyard at St Pancras to be "dreadful", chose to bury her instead at St Peter's Church, Bournemouth, near their new home at Boscombe. For the Saint after whom this church is named see Saint Pancras. St Peter's Church is a Church of England parish church in Bournemouth in the English county of Dorset (formerly in Hampshire) Boscombe is a suburb of the much larger Bournemouth. Boscombe is by the sea and it has its own pier which was built in 1888 with a unique aircraft-wings design added in the ^[133] On the first anniversary of Mary Shelley's death, the Shelleys opened her box-desk. Inside they found locks of her dead children's hair, a notebook she had shared with Percy Bysshe Shelley, and a copy of his poem Adonaïs with one page folded round a silk parcel containing some of his ashes and the remains of his heart. Adonaïs ( Adonaies) (/ædoʊˈneɪɪs/is a pastoral Elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley for John Keats in 1821 and widely regarded ^[134]

Literary themes and styles

Mary Shelley lived a literary life. Her father encouraged her to learn to write by composing letters,^[135] and her favourite occupation as a child was writing stories. ^[136] Unfortunately, all of Mary's juvenilia was lost when she eloped with Percy in 1814, and none of her surviving manuscripts can be definitively dated before 1814. Juvenilia is a term applied to literary musical or artistic works produced by an author during his or her youth ^[137] Her first published work is often thought to have been Mounseer Nongtongpaw,^[138] comic verses written for Godwin's Juvenile Library when she was ten and a half; however, the poem is attributed to another writer in the most recent authoritative collection of her works. Mounseer Nongtongpaw is an 1808 poem once thought to have been written by the Romantic writer Mary Shelley as a child ^[139] Percy Shelley enthusiastically encouraged Mary Shelley's writing: "My husband was, from the first, very anxious that I should prove myself worthy of my parentage, and enrol myself on the page of fame. He was forever inciting me to obtain literary reputation". ^[140]

Novels

Main articles: Frankenstein, Mathilda (novella), The Last Man, Valperga (novel), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, Lodore, and Falkner (novel)

Autobiographical elements

Sections of Mary Shelley's novels are often interpreted as masked rewritings of her life. Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a Novel written by the British author Mary Shelley Mary Shelley wrote her second novel Mathilda, or Matilda, on the common Romantic themes of Incest and suicide between August 1819 and February The Last Man is an apocalyptic Science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, which was first published in 1826 Valperga or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio Prince of Lucca is an 1823 historical novel by the Romantic novelist Mary Shelley. The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck A Romance is an 1830 historical novel by Mary Shelley about the life of Perkin Warbeck. Lodore, also published under the title The Beautiful Widow, is the penultimate novel by Romantic novelist Mary Shelley, completed in 1833 and Falkner (1837 is the last novel published by the Romantic writer Mary Shelley. Critics have pointed to the recurrence of the father-daughter motif in particular as evidence of this autobiographical style. In a Narrative, such as a novel or a film motifs are recurring structures contrasts or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes ^[141] For example, commentators frequently read Mathilda autobiographically, identifying the three central characters as versions of Mary Shelley, William Godwin, and Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley wrote her second novel Mathilda, or Matilda, on the common Romantic themes of Incest and suicide between August 1819 and February ^[142] Mary Shelley herself confided that she modelled the central characters of The Last Man on her Italian circle. The Last Man is an apocalyptic Science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, which was first published in 1826 Lord Raymond, who leaves England to fight for the Greeks and dies in Constantinople, is based on Lord Byron; and the utopian Adrian, Earl of Windsor, who leads his followers in search of a natural paradise and dies when his boat sinks in a storm, is a fictional portrait of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoúpolis, or gr ἡ Πόλις hē Polis, Latin: la CONSTANTINOPOLIS Utopia is a name for an ideal community taken from the title of a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional Island in the Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4 1792 – July 8 1822 ˈpɝːsɪ ˈbɪʃ ˈʃɛlɪ was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among ^[143] However, as she wrote in her review of Godwin's novel Cloudesley, she did not believe that authors "were merely copying from our own hearts". Cloudesley A Tale (1830 is the fifth novel published by Eighteenth-century philosopher and novelist William Godwin. ^[144] William Godwin regarded his daughter's characters as types rather than portraits from real life. In Metaphysics, a type is a Category of being. A Human is a type of thing a cloud is a type of thing ( Entity) and so on ^[145] Some modern critics, such as Patricia Clemit and Jane Blumberg, have taken the same view, resisting autobiographical readings of Mary Shelley's works. ^[146]

Novelistic genres

"[Euthanasia] was never heard of more; even her name perished. . . . The private chronicles, from which the foregoing relation has been collected, end with the death of Euthanasia. It is therefore in public histories alone that we find an account of the last years of the life of Castruccio. "

— From Mary Shelley, Valperga[147]

Mary Shelley's novels fuse the 1790s Godwinian novel with Walter Scott's new historical novel. Valperga or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio Prince of Lucca is an 1823 historical novel by the Romantic novelist Mary Shelley. Sir Walter Scott 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 &ndash 21 September 1832 was a prolific Scottish Historical novelist and Poet popular throughout An historical novel is a Novel in which the story is set among historical events or more generally in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the Author ^[148] For example, Frankenstein addresses many of the same themes and employs similar literary devices as Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794). Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a Novel written by the British author Mary Shelley Things as They Are or The Adventures of Caleb Williams (often abbreviated to Caleb Williams) ( 1794) by William Godwin is a three-volume ^[149] However, Shelley critiques the Enlightenment ideals that Godwin promotes in his novels. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century ^[150] In The Last Man, she uses the philosophical form of the Godwinian novel to demonstrate the ultimate meaninglessness of the world. ^[151] While earlier Godwinian novels had shown how rational individuals could slowly improve society, The Last Man and Frankenstein demonstrate the individual's lack of control over history. Shelley's narrative style reflects this theme; many early Godwinian novels were written in first-person, while Shelley's novels were often written in third-person. See also First person First-person narrative is a Narrative mode in which a Story is narrated by one character, who explicitly The third-person narrative is a Narrative mode applying the third person. ^[152]

Shelley also uses the historical novel to comment on gender relations; for example, Valperga is a feminist version of Scott's masculinist genre. Valperga or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio Prince of Lucca is an 1823 historical novel by the Romantic novelist Mary Shelley. ^[153] Introducing women into the story who are not part of the historical record, Shelley uses their narratives to question established theological and political institutions. ^[154] Shelley sets the male protagonist's compulsive greed for conquest in opposition to a female alternative: reason and sensibility. Sensibility refers to an acute perception of or responsiveness toward something such as the Emotions of another ^[155] In Perkin Warbeck, Shelley's other historical novel, Lady Gordon stands for the values of friendship, domesticity, and equality. The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck A Romance is an 1830 historical novel by Mary Shelley about the life of Perkin Warbeck. Through her, Shelley offers a feminine alternative to the masculine power politics that destroy the male characters. The novel provides a historical narrative to challenge that which relates only masculine events. ^[156]

In addition to the historical novel, Shelley used the Gothic to comment on gender issues. Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothic fiction was often employed by female writers to investigate female sexuality. In Frankenstein, according to critic Anne K. Mellor, Shelley uses the form to explore repressed female sexual desire through the figures of Victor Frankenstein and his creature. Anne K Mellor (born 1941 is a distinguished professor of British literature at UCLA; she specializes in Romantic literature, British cultural history Feminist ^[157] She combines this with a critique of what she viewed as dangerous science: "the hubristic manipulation of the elemental forces of nature to serve man's private ends". ^[158]

Gender

With the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1970s, Mary Shelley's works, particularly Frankenstein, began attracting much more attention from scholars. Feminist literary criticism is Literary criticism informed by Feminist theory, or by the politics of Feminism more broadly Feminist and psychoanalytic critics were largely responsible for the recovery of Shelley as a writer. Psychoanalytic theory is a general term for approaches to Psychoanalysis which attempt to provide a conceptual framework more-or-less independent of clinical practice rather ^[159] Ellen Moers was one of the first to claim that Frankenstein is a product of Shelley's tragic loss of a baby. ^[160] She argues that the novel is a "birth myth" in which Shelley comes to terms with her guilt for causing her mother's death as well as for having failed as a parent. ^[161] In Moers' view, a story "about what happens when a man tries to have a baby without a woman. . . [Frankenstein] is profoundly concerned with natural as opposed to unnatural modes of production and reproduction". ^[162] Victor Frankenstein's failure as a "parent" in the novel has been read as an expression of the anxieties which accompany pregnancy, giving birth, and particularly maternity. ^[163]

Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar argue in their seminal book The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) that in Frankenstein in particular, Shelley responded to the masculine literary tradition represented by John Milton's Paradise Lost. Dr Sandra M Gilbert (born 1936 Professor Emerita of English at the University of California Davis, is an influential Literary critic and Poet Dr Susan D Gubar (born 1944 is a Distinguished Professor of English and Women's Studies The Madwoman in the Attic The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, published in 1979 examines Victorian literature from a Feminist John Milton ( 9 December, 1608 – 8 November, 1674) was an English Poet, Prose Polemicist and Paradise Lost is an Epic poem in Blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. In their interpretation, Shelley reaffirms this masculine tradition, including the misogyny inherent in it, but at the same time "conceal[s] fantasies of equality that occasionally erupt in monstrous images of rage". ^[164] Mary Poovey reads the first edition of Frankenstein as part of a larger pattern in Shelley's writing, which begins with literary self-assertion and ends with conventional femininity. Mary Poovey is an American Cultural historian and Literary critic whose work focuses on the Victorian Era. ^[165] Poovey suggests that Frankenstein's multiple narratives enable Shelley to split her artistic persona: she can "express and efface herself at the same time". ^[166] Shelley's fears of self-assertion are enacted in the character of Frankenstein, who is punished for his egotism by losing all his domestic ties. ^[167] Feminist critics often focus on how authorship itself, particularly female authorship, is represented in the novels. ^[168]

Shelley's writings focus on the role of the family in society and women's role within that family. She celebrates the "feminine affections and compassion" associated with the family and suggests that civil society will fail without them. ^[169] Shelley was "profoundly committed to an ethic of cooperation, mutual dependence, and self-sacrifice". ^[170] In Lodore, for example, the central story follows the fortunes of the wife and daughter of the title character, Lord Lodore, who is killed in a duel at the end of the first volume, leaving a trail of legal, financial, and familial obstacles for the two "heroines" to negotiate. Lodore, also published under the title The Beautiful Widow, is the penultimate novel by Romantic novelist Mary Shelley, completed in 1833 and The novel is engaged with political and ideological issues, particularly the education and social role of women. ^[171] It dissects a patriarchal culture that separated the sexes and pressured women into dependence on men. Patriarchy is the structuring of Society on the basis of Family units where fathers have primary responsibility for the welfare of hence authority over In the view of Bennett, "the novel proposes egalitarian educational paradigms for women and men, which would bring social justice as well as the spiritual and intellectual means by which to meet the challenges life invariably brings". ^[172] However, Falkner is the only one of Mary Shelley's novels in which the heroine's agenda triumphs. Falkner (1837 is the last novel published by the Romantic writer Mary Shelley. ^[173] The novel’s resolution proposes that when female values triumph over violent and destructive masculinity, men will be freed to express the "compassion, sympathy, and generosity" of their better natures. ^[174]

Enlightenment and Romanticism

Frankenstein, like much Gothic fiction of its period, mixes a visceral and alienating subject matter with speculative and thought-provoking themes. Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a Novel written by the British author Mary Shelley Theodor Richard Edward von Holst ( 3 September 1810 – 14 February 1844) was a nineteenth-century British literary painter Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. ^[176] Rather than focusing on the twists and turns of the plot, however, the novel foregrounds the mental and moral struggles of the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, and Shelley imbues the text with her own brand of politicised Romanticism, one that criticised the individualism and egotism of traditional Romanticism. The Protagonist or main character is the central figure of a story. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the ^[177] Victor Frankenstein is like Satan in Paradise Lost, and Prometheus: he rebels against tradition; he creates life; and he shapes his own destiny. Paradise Lost is an Epic poem in Blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. In Greek mythology, Prometheus (Προμηθεύς "forethought" is a Titan known for his wily intelligence who stole Fire from Zeus These traits are not portrayed positively; as Blumberg writes, "his relentless ambition is a self-delusion, clothed as quest for truth". ^[178] He must abandon his family to fulfill his ambition. ^[179]

Although Mary Shelley believed, like her parents and her husband, in the Enlightenment idea that people could improve society through the responsible exercise of political power, she also believed that irresponsible use of power led to chaos. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century ^[180] Moreover, Shelley's works largely criticise the way that eighteenth-century thinkers such as her parents believed change could be brought about. For example, the creature in Frankenstein reads books associated with radical ideals but the education he gains from them is ultimately useless. ^[181] Shelley is not as optimistic about the power of people to effect change as Godwin and Wollstonecraft, and she did not accept Godwin's theory that humanity could eventually be perfected. ^[182]

More so than Frankenstein, The Last Man, as literary scholar Kari Lokke writes, "in its refusal to place humanity at the center of the universe, its questioning of our privileged position in relation to nature. . . constitutes a profound and prophetic challenge to Western humanism. "^[183] Specifically, Mary Shelley, in making references to the failure of the French Revolution and the Godwinian, Wollstonecraftian, and Burkean responses to it, "attacks Enlightenment faith in the inevitability of progress through collective efforts". The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an ^[184] As in Frankenstein, Shelley "offers a profoundly disenchanted commentary on the age of revolution, which ends in a total rejection of the progressive ideals of her own generation". ^[185] Not only does she reject these Enlightenment political ideals, but she also rejects the Romantic notion that the poetic or literary imagination can offer an alternative. ^[186]

Politics

Critics have until recently cited Lodore and Falkner as evidence of a conservative retrenchment by Mary Shelley. In 1984, Mary Poovey influentially identified the retreat of Mary Shelley’s reformist politics into the "separate sphere" of the domestic. Mary Poovey is an American Cultural historian and Literary critic whose work focuses on the Victorian Era. ^[187] Poovey suggested that Mary Shelley wrote Falkner to resolve her conflicted response to her father's combination of libertarian radicalism and stern insistence on social decorum. Libertarianism is a term used by a broad spectrum of political philosophies which prioritize individual Liberty and seek to minimize or even abolish the ^[188] Mellor largely agreed, arguing that "Mary Shelley grounded her alternative political ideology on the metaphor of the peaceful, loving, bourgeois family. She thereby implicitly endorsed a conservative vision of gradual evolutionary reform". ^[189] This vision allowed women to participate in the public sphere but it inherited the inequalities inherent in the bourgeois family. ^[190]

However, in the last decade or so this view has been challenged. For example, Jane Blumberg, in her study of Shelley's early novels argues that her career cannot be easily divided into radical and conservative halves. She contends that "Shelley was never a passionate radical like her husband and her later lifestyle was not abruptly assumed nor was it a betrayal. She was in fact challenging the political and literary influences of her circle in her first work. "^[191] In this reading, Shelley's early works are interpreted as a challenge to Godwin and Percy Bysshe Shelley's radicalism. Victor Frankenstein's "thoughtless rejection of family", for example, is seen as evidence of Shelley's constant concern for the domestic. ^[192]

Short stories

In the 1820s and 1830s, Mary Shelley frequently wrote short stories for gift books or annuals, including sixteen for The Keepsake, which was aimed at middle-class women and bound in silk, with gilt-edged pages. Gift books, or literary annuals, first appeared in England The Forget Me Not, subtitled a Christmas and New Year’s Present for 1823, was published in The short story is a literary genre of Fictional Prose Narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such Gift books, or literary annuals, first appeared in England The Forget Me Not, subtitled a Christmas and New Year’s Present for 1823, was published in ^[194] Mary Shelley's work in this genre has been described as that of a "hack writer" and "wordy and pedestrian". ^[195] However, critic Charlotte Sussman points out that other leading writers of the day, such as the Romantic poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, also took advantage of this profitable market. Romanticism largely began as a reaction against the prevailing Enlightenment ideals of the day Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( 21 October 1772 &ndash 25 July 1834) was an English Poet, Critic and philosopher She explains that "the annuals were a major mode of literary production in the 1820s and 1830s", with The Keepsake the most successful. ^[196]

Many of Shelley's stories are set in places or times far removed from early nineteenth-century Britain, such as Greece and the reign of Henry IV of France. Henry IV (Henri IV ( 13 December 1553 &ndash 14 May 1610) ruled as King of France from 1589 to 1610 and as Henry III Shelley was particularly interested in "the fragility of individual identity" and often depicted "the way a person's role in the world can be cataclysmically altered either by an internal emotional upheaval, or by some supernatural occurrence that mirrors an internal schism". ^[197] In her stories, female identity is tied to a woman's short-lived value in the marriage market while male identity can be transformed through economic exchange. ^[198] Although Mary Shelley wrote twenty-one short stories for the annuals between 1823 and 1839, she always saw herself, above all, as a novelist. She wrote to Leigh Hunt, "I write bad articles which help to make me miserable—but I am going to plunge into a novel and hope that its clear water will wash off the mud of the magazines". James Henry Leigh Hunt ( October 19, 1784 &ndash August 28, 1859) was an English critic essayist poet and writer ^[199]

Travelogues

When they eloped to France in the summer of 1814, Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley began a joint journal,^[200] which they published in 1817 under the title History of a Six Weeks' Tour, adding four letters, two by each of them, based on their visit to Geneva in 1816, along with Percy Shelley's poem "Mont Blanc". Geneva (Genève is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French -speaking "Mont Blanc Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni" is an Ode by the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The work celebrates youthful love and political idealism and consciously follows the example of Mary Wollstonecraft and others who had combined travelling with writing. Mary Wollstonecraft (ˈwʊlstənkrɑːft 27 April 1759 – 10 September ^[201] The perspective of the History is philosophical and reformist rather than that of a conventional travelogue; in particular, it addresses the effects of politics and war on France. Travel literature is Travel writing considered to have value as Literature. ^[202] The letters the couple wrote on the second journey confront the "great and extraordinary events" of the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo after his "Hundred Days" return in 1815. Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821 was a French military and political leader who had a significant impact on the History of Europe. In the Battle of Waterloo (Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo Belgium The Hundred Days was the period between Napoleon Bonaparte 's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the restoration They also explore the sublimity of Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc as well as the revolutionary legacy of the philosopher and novelist Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In Aesthetics, the sublime (from the Latin sublimis ( up from under the lintel high lofty elevated exalted is the quality of greatness or vast Lake Geneva or Lake Léman (Lac Léman Léman Lac de Genève is the second largest freshwater Lake in Central Europe in terms of surface area (after Mont Blanc Massif The Mont Blanc ( French for white mountain) or Monte Bianco ( Italian 'White Mountain' also ^[203]

Mary Shelley's last full-length book was Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842 and 1843, written in the form of letters and published in 1844, which recorded her travels with her son Percy Florence and his university friends. In the tradition of Mary Wollstonecraft's Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark and her own A History of a Six Weeks' Tour, Shelley maps her personal and political landscape in Rambles through the discourse of sensibility and sympathy. Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden Norway and Denmark Sensibility refers to an acute perception of or responsiveness toward something such as the Emotions of another ^[204] For Shelley, building sympathetic connections between people is the way to build civil society and to increase knowledge: "knowledge, to enlighten and free the mind from clinging deadening prejudices—a wider circle of sympathy with our fellow-creatures;—these are the uses of travel". ^[205] Between observations on scenery, culture, and "the people, especially in a political point of view",^[206] she uses the travelogue form to explore her roles as a widow and mother and to reflect on revolutionary nationalism in Italy. ^{[207][note 15]} She also records her "pilgrimage" to scenes associated with Percy Shelley. ^[208] According to critic Clarissa Orr, Mary Shelley's adoption of a persona of philosophical motherhood gives Rambles the unity of a prose poem, with "death and memory as central themes". ^[209] At the same time, Shelley makes an egalitarian case against monarchy, class distinctions, slavery, and war. Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal) is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have ^[210]

Biographies

Main article: Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men

Between 1832 and 1839, Mary Shelley also wrote many biographies of "eminent" Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French men and a few women for Dionysius Lardner's Lives. The Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men were five volumes of Dionysius Lardner’s 133-volume Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829&ndash46 Dionysius Lardner ( April 3, 1793 - April 29, 1859) was an Irish scientific writer who popularised science and technology and edited The Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men were five volumes of Dionysius Lardner’s 133-volume Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829&ndash46 These formed part of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, one of the best of many such series produced in the 1820s and 1830s in response to growing middle-class demand for self-education. ^[211] Until the republication of these essays in 2002, their significance was not appreciated. ^{[212][note 16]} In the view of literary scholar Greg Kucich, they reveal Mary Shelley's "prodigious research across several centuries and in multiple languages", her gift for biographical narrative, and her interest in the "emerging forms of feminist historiography". ^[213] Shelley wrote in a style that combined secondary sources, memoir and anecdote, and authorial evaluation, a biographical style made popular by the eighteenth-century critic Samuel Johnson in his Lives of the Poets (1779–81). for other uses see Memoir (disambiguation As a literary Genre, a memoir (from the French: mémoire Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson) (18 September Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1779&ndash81 was a work by Samuel Johnson, comprising short biographies and critical appraisals of 52 poets most of whom ^[214] She records details of each writer's life and character, quotes their writing in the original as well as in translation, and ends with a critical assessment of their achievement. ^[215]

For Shelley, biographical writing was supposed to, in her words, "form as it were a school in which to study the philosophy of history",^[216] and to teach "lessons". These lessons consisted, most frequently and importantly, of criticisms of male-dominated institutions, such as primogeniture. Primogeniture is the Common law right of the Firstborn son to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings ^[217] Shelley emphasizes domesticity, romance, family, sympathy, and compassion in the lives of her subjects. Her conviction that such forces could improve society connects her biographical approach with that of other early feminist historians such as Mary Hays and Anna Jameson. Mary Hays (1760 &ndash 1843 was an English novelist and feminist Anna Brownell Jameson ( May 17, 1794 - March 17, 1860) British Writer, was born in Dublin. ^[218] Unlike her novels, most of which which had a print run of several hundred copies, the Lives had a print run of about 4,000 for each volume: thus, according to Kucich, Mary Shelley's "use of biography to forward the social agenda of women's historiography became one of her most influential political interventions". ^[219]

Editorial work

"The qualities that struck any one newly introduced to Shelley, were, first, a gentle and cordial goodness that animated his intercourse with warm affection, and helpful sympathy. The other, the eagerness and ardour with which he was attached to the cause of human happiness and improvement. "

— Mary Shelley, "Preface", Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley[220]

Soon after Percy Shelley’s death, Mary Shelley determined to write his biography. In a letter of 17 November 1822, she announced: "I shall write his life—& thus occupy myself in the only manner from which I can derive consolation". Events 284 - Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers Year 1822 (MDCCCXXII was a Common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting on Sunday of the ^[221] However, her father-in-law, Sir Timothy Shelley, effectively banned her from doing so. ^{[222][note 17]} Mary began the building of Percy's poetic reputation in 1824 with the publication of his Posthumous Poems. In 1839, while she was working on the Lives, she prepared a new edition of his poetry, which became, in the words of literary scholar Susan Wolfson, "the canonizing event" in the history of her husband's reputation. ^[223] The following year, Mary Shelley edited a volume of her husband's essays, letters, translations, and fragments, and throughout the 1830s, she introduced his poetry to a wider audience by publishing assorted works in the Keepsake. ^[224]

Evading Sir Timothy's ban on a biography, Mary Shelley often included in these editions her own annotations and reflections on her husband's life and work. Annotation is add on information asserted with a particular point in a Document or other piece of information ^[225] "I am to justify his ways," she had declared in 1824; "I am to make him beloved to all posterity". ^[226] It was this goal, argues Blumberg, that led her to present Percy's work to the public in the "most popular form possible". ^[227] To tailor his works for a Victorian audience, she cast Percy Shelley as a lyrical rather than a political poet. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities Lyric poetry refers to a usually short poem that expresses personal feelings which may or may not be set to music ^[228] As Mary Favret writes, "the disembodied Percy identifies the spirit of poetry itself". ^[229] Mary glossed Percy's political radicalism as a form of sentimentalism, arguing that his republicanism arose from sympathy for the suffering. Sentimentalism (literally appealing to the Sentiments, as a literary and political discourse has occurred much in the literary traditions of all regions in the world and is Republicanism is the Ideology of governing a nation as a Republic, with an emphasis on Liberty, Rule of law, Popular sovereignty ^[230] She inserted romantic anecdotes of his benevolence, domesticity, and love of the natural world. ^[231] Portraying herself as Percy's "practical muse", she also noted how she had suggested revisions as he wrote. ^[232]

Despite the emotions stirred by this task, Mary Shelley arguably proved herself in many respects a professional and scholarly editor. ^[233] Working from Percy's messy, sometimes indecipherable, notebooks, she attempted to form a chronology for his writings, and she included poems that harmed her own reputation. ^[234] She was forced, however, into several compromises, and, as Blumberg notes, "modern critics have found fault with the edition and claim variously that she miscopied, misinterpreted, purposely obscured, and attempted to turn the poet into something he was not". ^[235] According to Wolfson, Donald Reiman, a modern editor of Percy Bysshe Shelley, still refers to Mary Shelley's editions, while acknowledging that her editing style belongs "to an age of editing when the aim was not to establish accurate texts and scholarly apparatus but to present a full record of a writer's career for the general reader". ^[236] In principle, Mary Shelley believed in publishing every last word of her husband's work;^[237] but she found herself obliged to omit certain passages, either by pressure from her publisher, Edward Moxon, or in deference to public propriety. Edward Moxon ( 12 December, 1801 - 3 June, 1858) was a British Poet and Publisher. ^[238] For example, she removed the atheistical sections from Queen Mab for the first edition. Atheism Queen Mab is a Fairy referred to in Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. After she restored them in the second edition, Moxon was prosecuted and convicted of blasphemous libel, though he escaped punishment. See also Blasphemy Blasphemous libel was a Common law criminal offence in England and Wales. ^[239] Mary Shelley's omissions provoked criticism, often stinging, from members of Percy Shelley's former circle,^[240] and reviewers accused her of, among other things, indiscriminate inclusions. ^[241] Her notes have nevertheless remained an essential source for the study of Percy Shelley's work. As Bennett explains, "biographers and critics agree that Mary Shelley's commitment to bring Shelley the notice she believed his works merited was the single, major force that established Shelley's reputation during a period when he almost certainly would have faded from public view". ^[242]

Reputation

Mary Shelley was taken seriously as a writer in her own lifetime, though reviewers often missed the political edge to her novels. Henry Weekes, RA ( 14 January 1807 – 1877) was an English sculptor, best known for his portraiture. After her death, however, she was chiefly remembered only as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and as the author of Frankenstein. ^[243] In fact, in the introduction to her letters published in 1945, editor Frederick Jones wrote, "a collection of the present size could not be justified by the general quality of the letters or by Mary Shelley's importance as a writer. It is as the wife of [Percy Bysshe Shelley] that she excites our interest". ^[244] This attitude had not disappeared by 1980 when Betty T. Bennett published the first volume of Mary Shelley's complete letters. Betty T Bennett (1935-2006 was Distinguished Professor of Literature and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1985-1997 at American ^[245] As she explains, "the fact is that until recent years scholars have generally regarded Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley as a result: William Godwin's and Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter who became Shelley's Pygmalion. "^[246] It was not until Emily Sunstein's Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality in 1989 that a full-length scholarly biography was published. ^[247]

The attempts of Mary Shelley's son and daughter-in-law to "Victorianise" her memory by censoring biographical documents contributed to a perception of Mary Shelley as a more conventional, less reformist figure than her works suggest. Her own timid omissions from Percy Shelley's works and her quiet avoidance of public controversy in the later years of her life added to this impression. Commentary by Hogg, Trelawny, and other admirers of Percy Shelley also tended to downplay Mary Shelley's radicalism. Thomas Jefferson Hogg ( 24 May, 1792 &ndash 27 August, 1862) was a British Biographer. Edward John Trelawny ( November 13, 1792 &ndash August 13, 1881) was a Biographer, Novelist, and Adventurer and Trelawny's Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author (1878) praised Percy Shelley at the expense of Mary, questioning her intelligence and even her authorship of Frankenstein. ^[248] Lady Shelley, Percy Florence's wife, responded in part by presenting a severely edited collection of letters she had inherited, published privately as Shelley and Mary in 1882. ^[249]

The eclipse of Mary Shelley's reputation as a novelist and biographer meant that most of her works remained out of print until the last thirty years, obstructing a larger view of her achievement. She was seen as a one-novel author at best. ^[250] In recent decades, the republication of almost all her writing has stimulated a new recognition of its value. Her habit of intensive reading and study, revealed in her journals and letters and reflected in her works, is now better appreciated. ^[251] Shelley's conception of herself as an author has also been recognized; after Percy's death, she wrote of her authorial ambitions: "I think that I can maintain myself, and there is something inspiriting in the idea". ^[252] Scholars now consider Mary Shelley to be a major Romantic figure, significant for her literary achievement and her political voice as a woman and a liberal. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the ^[253]

Selected list of works

See List of works by Mary Shelley for a complete list of her writings. This is a list of works by Mary Shelley. The following list is drawn from W

• History of Six Weeks' Tour through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, with Letters Descriptive of a Sail round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni (1817)
• Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)
• Mathilda (1819)
• Valperga; or, The Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca (1823)
• Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1824)
• The Last Man (1826)
• The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830)
• Lodore (1835)
• Falkner (1837)
• The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1839)
• Contributions to Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men, part of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia (1835–39)
• Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843 (1844)

Collections of Mary Shelley's papers are housed in Lord Abinger's Shelley Collection on deposit at the Bodleian Library, the New York Public Library (particularly The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle), the Huntington Library, the British Library, and in the John Murray Collection. Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a Novel written by the British author Mary Shelley Mary Shelley wrote her second novel Mathilda, or Matilda, on the common Romantic themes of Incest and suicide between August 1819 and February Valperga or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio Prince of Lucca is an 1823 historical novel by the Romantic novelist Mary Shelley. The Last Man is an apocalyptic Science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, which was first published in 1826 The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck A Romance is an 1830 historical novel by Mary Shelley about the life of Perkin Warbeck. Lodore, also published under the title The Beautiful Widow, is the penultimate novel by Romantic novelist Mary Shelley, completed in 1833 and Falkner (1837 is the last novel published by the Romantic writer Mary Shelley. The Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men were five volumes of Dionysius Lardner’s 133-volume Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829&ndash46 Dionysius Lardner ( April 3, 1793 - April 29, 1859) was an Irish scientific writer who popularised science and technology and edited The Bodleian Library ( the main Research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in England The New York Public Library ( NYPL) is one of the leading public libraries of the world and is one of America's most significant Research libraries. The Carl H Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle is one of the special collections housed within The New York Public Library 's Humanities and Social Sciences building The Huntington Library Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (or The Huntington) is an educational and research institution established by Henry E The British Library ( BL) is the National library of the United Kingdom.

See also

• Godwin-Shelley family tree

Notes

1. ^ Claire's first name was "Jane", but from 1814 (see Gittings and Manton, 22) she preferred to be called "Claire" (her second name was "Clara"), which is how she is known to history. To avoid confusion, this article calls her "Claire" throughout.
2. ^ William St Clair, in his biography of the Godwins and the Shelleys, notes that "it is easy to forget in reading of these crises [in the lives of the Godwins and the Shelleys] how unrepresentative the references in surviving documents may be. It is easy for the biographer to give undue weight to the opinions of the people who happen to have written things down. " (246)
3. ^ "Journal 6th December—Very Unwell. Shelley & Clary walk out, as usual, to heaps of places. . . A letter from Hookham to say that Harriet has been brought to bed of a son and heir. Shelley writes a number of circular letters on this event, which ought to be ushered in with ringing of bells, etc. , for it is the son of his wife. " (Quoted in Spark, 39. )
4. ^ Sunstein speculates, however, that Mary Shelley and Jefferson Hogg made love in April 1815. (Sunstein, 98–99)
5. ^ The violent storms were, it is now known, a repercussion of the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia the year before (Sunstein, 118). Mount Tambora (or Tomboro) is an active Stratovolcano, also known as a Composite volcano, on Sumbawa island Indonesia. The Republic of Indonesia ( (Republik Indonesia is a Country in Southeast Asia. See also The Year Without a Summer. The Year Without a Summer, also known as the Poverty Year, The Year There Was No Summer or Eighteen hundred and froze to death
6. ^ Seymour argues that evidence from Polidori's diary conflicts with Mary Shelley's account of when the idea came to her (157).
7. ^ Alba was renamed "Allegra" in 1818. (Seymour, 177)
8. ^ At various times, the Shelleys lived at Livorno, Bagni di Lucca, Venice, Este, Naples, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Bagni di Pisa, and San Terenzo. "Leghorn" redirects here For the breed of chicken see Leghorn chicken. Bagni di Lucca (Baths of Lucca formerly Bagno a Corsena) is a commune of Tuscany, Italy, in the Province of Lucca with Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the "Este" redirects here For the city see Este Italy. For Tolkien's fictional character see Estë. Naples ( Napoli, Neapolitan: Nàpule) is a historic City in southern Italy, the Capital of the Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea.
9. ^ Clara died of dysentery at the age of one, and William of malaria at three and a half. Dysentery (formerly known as flux or the bloody flux) is an infection of the digestive system that results in severe Diarrhea containing mucus and blood Malaria is a vector -borne Infectious disease caused by Protozoan Parasites It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions including (Seymour, 214, 231)
10. ^ The Williamses were not technically married; Jane was still the wife of an army officer named Johnson.
11. ^ Elise had been employed by Byron as Allegra's nurse. Mary Shelley stated in a letter that Elise had been pregnant by Paolo at the time, which was the reason they had married, but not that she had had a child in Naples. Elise seems to have first met Paolo only in September. See Mary Shelley's letter to Isabella Hoppner, 10 August 1821, Selected Letters, 75–79. Events 612 BC - Killing of Sinsharishkun, King of Assyrian Empire Year 1821 ( MDCCCXXI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year
12. ^ "Establishing Elena Adelaide's parentage is one of the greatest bafflements Shelley left for his biographers. " (Bieri, 106)
13. ^ Beauclerk married Ida Goring in 1838 and, after Ida's death, Mary Shelley's friend Rosa Robinson in 1841. A clear picture of Mary Shelley's relationship with Beauclerk is difficult to reconstruct from the evidence. (Seymour, 425–26)
14. ^ According to Bieri, Medwin claimed to possess evidence relating to Naples. Medwin is the source for the theory that the child registered by Percy Shelley in Naples was his daughter by a mystery woman. See also, Journals, 249–50 n3.
15. ^ Mary Shelley donated the £60 fee for Rambles to the exiled Italian revolutionary Ferdinand Gatteschi, whose essay on the Carbonari rebels she included in the book. The Carbonari ("charcoal burners" were groups of secret revolutionary societies founded in early 19th-century Italy. (Orr, "Mary Shelley's Rambles ")
16. ^ However, "precise attribution of all the biographical essays" in these volumes "is very difficult", according to Kucich.
17. ^ Sir Timothy Shelley made his allowance to Mary (on behalf of Percy Florence) dependent on her not putting the Shelley name in print.

References

All essays from The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley are marked with a "(CC)" and those from The Other Mary Shelley with a "(OMS)".

Bibliography

Primary sources

Secondary sources

External links

• Works by Mary Shelley at Project Gutenberg

Mary Shelley chronology and bibliography (part of Romantic Circles)

Persondata
NAME	Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft
SHORT DESCRIPTION	English romantic/gothic novelist
DATE OF BIRTH	30 August 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH	London, England
DATE OF DEATH	1 February 1851
PLACE OF DEATH	Bournemouth, England

Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works Events 1363 - Beginning date of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders— Chen Youliang and Year 1797 ( MDCCXCVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Events 1327 - Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen 1851 ( MDCCCLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year Bournemouth ( is a large coastal resort town in the Borough of Bournemouth in Dorset, England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland

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