
Mrs. Shelley
'Mrs. Shelley' Summary
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was the philosopher and feminist activist Mary Wollstonecraft.
Shelley's mother died less than a month after giving birth to her. She was raised by her father, who provided her with a rich if informal education, encouraging her to adhere to his own anarchist political theories. When she was four, her father married a neighbour, Mary Jane Clairmont, with whom Shelley came to have a troubled relationship.
In 1814, Shelley began a romance with one of her father's political followers, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married. Together with her stepsister, Claire Clairmont, she and Percy left for France and travelled through Europe. Upon their return to England, Shelley was pregnant with Percy's child. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt and the death of their prematurely born daughter. They married in late 1816, after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet.
In 1816, the couple and Mary's stepsister famously spent a summer with Lord Byron and John William Polidori near Geneva, Switzerland, where Shelley conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third children died before Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm near Viareggio. A year later, 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, most likely caused by the brain tumour which killed her at age 53.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1890Authors

Lucy Madox Rossetti
United Kingdom
Lucy Madox Brown Rossetti was a British artist, author, and model associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. She was married to the writer and art critic William Michael Rossetti. Madox Brown was born in P...
Books by Lucy Madox RossettiListen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

Autobiography by John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873), British philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential libe...

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
Inventor, author, printer, scientist, politician, diplomat—all these terms do not even begin to fully describe the amazing and multitalented, Benjamin...

Mozart's Youth by Franz Hoffmann
This short account of the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is part of the “Life Stories for Young People” series. It is written in an engaging dialogue f...

The Diary of a Dead Officer by Arthur Graeme West
The Diary of a Dead Officer brings together the private papers of Arthur Graeme West. First published posthumously in 1917, it presents a scathing pic...

My Life on the Plains by George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer's 'My Life on the Plains' is a first-hand account of his experiences in the Indian Wars of the 1860s and 1870s. Written in a...

T. De Witt Talmage As I Knew Him by Thomas De Witt Talmage
"In the corridors of memory, a luminous figure emerges—T. De Witt Talmage, an enigma of his time. Step into the captivating world of 'T. De Witt Talma...

A Breviate of the Life of Margaret Baxter by Richard Baxter
This engaging book offers a glimpse into the life and experiences of Margaret Baxter, providing readers with a captivating narrative of her extraordin...

Half a Century by Jane Grey Swisshelm
A woman's extraordinary journey through the turbulent times of the abolitionist and women's rights movements. Jane Grey Swisshelm's autobiography, Ha...

Hurlbut's Life of Christ For Young and Old by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Hurlbut's Life of Christ For Young and Old is a detailed, chronological presentation of the life of Christ, relying heavily on quoted portions of Scri...

Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche
Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is is the last original book written by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche before his death in 1900. It was written i...
Reviews for Mrs. Shelley
No reviews posted or approved, yet...