Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in Somers Town, London on the 30th of August 1797. Her mother died just eleven days after giving birth to her from puerperal fever. William Godwin raised Mary alongside his daughter Fanny Imlay from a previous relationship. The family lived in poverty and debt while Godwin published Memoirs that exposed his late wife's private life. Mary read these memoirs and her mother's books throughout her early years. She received an unusual education for a girl of that time through her father's library and tutors. He took her on educational outings and introduced her to intellectuals like Samuel Taylor Coleridge. By age fifteen, he described her as singularly bold with great desire for knowledge.
On the 26th of June 1814, Mary declared her love for Percy Shelley at their meeting place near Mary Wollstonecraft's grave. They were sixteen and twenty-one respectively when they fell in love during secret meetings. On the 28th of July 1814, the couple eloped to France taking Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont with them. They traveled by donkey, mule, carriage, and foot through war-ravaged countryside. Upon returning to England in September 1814, Mary was pregnant with Percy's child. Her father refused to help them despite their desperate financial situation. The couple moved into lodgings at Somers Town where they faced constant ostracism from society. Mary gave birth to a premature daughter who died on the 6th of March 1815 after only two months of life.
In May 1816, Mary Godwin traveled to Geneva with Percy Shelley and Claire Clairmont to spend summer with Lord Byron. The party arrived at Villa Diodati on the 14th of May 1816 where they rented rooms near Lake Geneva. During a wet and stormy summer caused by volcanic eruptions in Indonesia, they stayed indoors reading ghost stories. On one mid-June evening around 1816, the group discussed galvanism and whether corpses could be reanimated. Unable to think of a story herself, Mary became anxious about the challenge Byron had issued. Between 2am and 3am on the 16th of June 1816, she experienced what she called her waking dream that became Frankenstein. She expanded this short tale into her first novel published anonymously in January 1818. Reviewers assumed Percy Shelley wrote it since he provided the preface and dedication.
The Shelleys left England for Italy on the 12th of March 1818 taking Claire Clairmont and her daughter Alba. They lived roving lives across Livorno, Venice, Rome, and Naples while accumulating friends who moved with them. In September 1818, their daughter Clara died of dysentery at age one in Venice. William contracted malaria and died in June 1819 at three and a half years old in Rome. These losses plunged Mary into deep depression that isolated her from Percy Shelley. He wrote in his notebook asking why she had gone down a dreary road leading to sorrow's obscure abode. The birth of their fourth child Percy Florence on the 12th of November 1819 finally lifted her spirits. In Naples during early 1820, former servants Paolo and Elise Foggi claimed Percy had registered a two-month-old baby girl named Elena Adelaide as his own. Biographers remain divided over whether this child was adopted, illegitimate, or belonged to another woman entirely. Elena Adelaide died in Naples on the 9th of June 1820 leaving behind only mystery about her parentage.
Percy Shelley drowned when his sailing boat sank near Viareggio on the 8th of July 1822 during a storm. Ten days later, three bodies washed up on the coast between Livorno and Lerici where Trelawny cremated his corpse on the beach. Mary returned to England in July 1823 living with her father while receiving limited financial support from Sir Timothy Shelley. She edited her husband's poems and published novels including Valperga in 1823 and The Last Man in 1826. By 1837, she had written four more novels: Perkin Warbeck, Lodore, Falkner, and Rambles in Germany and Italy. In 1845, she faced blackmail attempts from Italian exile Gatteschi who threatened to publish private letters. She also bought letters from Percy Shelley's cousin Thomas Medwin for £250 to prevent publication of damaging biographical material. Her final years were blighted by illness including headaches and paralysis that prevented reading and writing.
Modern scholarship has recovered Mary Shelley as a lifelong reformer engaged in liberal and feminist concerns throughout her life. Critics like Ellen Moers claimed her loss of babies influenced Frankenstein as a birth myth about maternal guilt. Anne K. Mellor argued the novel explores what happens when men try to have children without women present. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar suggested Shelley responded to masculine literary traditions while concealing fantasies of equality. Betty T. Bennett noted how Lodore proposed egalitarian educational paradigms for both sexes. Falkner remained unique among her works where female values triumphed over violent masculinity. Mary Poovey identified retreat into domestic spheres but Jane Blumberg challenged this view showing consistent commitment to political reform. Shelley's works criticized Enlightenment faith in inevitable progress through collective efforts while offering disenchanted commentary on revolutionary ages. She celebrated feminine affections and compassion as essential to civil society functioning properly.
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Common questions
When was Mary Shelley born and where?
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in Somers Town, London on the 30th of August 1797. Her mother died just eleven days after giving birth to her from puerperal fever.
Who did Mary Shelley elope with and when did they travel to France?
On the 28th of July 1814, Mary declared her love for Percy Shelley and eloped to France taking Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont with them. They traveled by donkey, mule, carriage, and foot through war-ravaged countryside before returning to England in September 1814.
What event inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein?
Between 2am and 3am on the 16th of June 1816, Mary experienced what she called her waking dream that became Frankenstein during a gathering at Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva. The group discussed galvanism and whether corpses could be reanimated while staying indoors due to a wet and stormy summer caused by volcanic eruptions in Indonesia.
How many children did Mary Shelley lose and when did they die?
Mary gave birth to a premature daughter who died on the 6th of March 1815 after only two months of life. Their daughter Clara died of dysentery at age one in Venice in September 1818, and William contracted malaria and died in June 1819 at three and a half years old in Rome.
When did Percy Shelley drown and how was his body handled?
Percy Shelley drowned when his sailing boat sank near Viareggio on the 8th of July 1822 during a storm. Ten days later, three bodies washed up on the coast between Livorno and Lerici where Trelawny cremated his corpse on the beach.