Literary Lunch

Mary Shelley was born on August 30, 1797 in London, England. Her parents were Mary Wollstencraft, a noted feminist, and William Godwin, a well-known philosopher. Her mother died when Mary was 10-days-old. Her father re-married when Mary was four, Mary could not stand the woman he married. Mary was largely educated at home by her father. In 1814, she began an affair with poet Percy Shelley. The two ran away together and were eventually married in 1816, after his wife committed suicide. She became pregnant with his child before they were married; the baby died after being born prematurely. By 1818, Mary and Percy were living in Italy. She had lost two more children before the birth of her son Percy Florence in 1819. Percy was the only one of Mary’s children to survive childhood. In 1822, her husband was drowned in a sailing accident; after that she and her son returned to England.

In 1816, Mary Shelley, her husband Percy, and poet Lord Byron lived on Lake Geneva. One night, as legend goes, they were telling each other scary stories; Mary supposedly wrote the beginnings of the novel she is most known for, Frankenstein. The novel was published anonymously in 1818 and it was assumed that it was Percy Shelley who wrote it. In addition to Frankenstein, Mary also wrote a few more novels; among them, Mathilde (1820), Perkin Warkeck (1830), Lodore (1835), and Falkner (1837).  Mary Shelley also worked as an editor for several works. When her father died, she collected his writings into a volume.  She also wrote essays and biographies of literary figures and also collected her husband’s poems and published The Poetical Works of Percy Shelley.

Mary Shelley died on February 1, 1851 of a suspected brain tumor.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS