Mary Shelley

           Mary Shelley

 

   Born in London, on August 30,1797, as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, she was the daughter of the renowned political philosophers and revolutionary writers William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. An English novelist, short story writer, dramatists, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, she was best known for her Gothic novel..

                  Frankenstein: or,

     The Modern Prometheus (1818).

    Having lost her mother when she was barely eleven days old, Mary and her older half-sister,Fanny Imlay, were reared by their father and provided rich education. Mary was encouraged by her father to adhere to his liberal political theories. IN 1814, she began a romantic relationship with the married Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of her father's political followers. Together they fled to Europe, and upon their return Mary was expecting their first child. In 1816,Mary began to write what she assumed would be a short story. In July of the same year, Mary and Percy explored the Mer de Glace at Chamonix, a major inspiration for her novel. Mary and Percy finally married in December 1816, after Shelley's first wife, Harriet, committed suicide.

The Shelleys moved to Marlow in 1817. Mary's debutant novel, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, was completed in May and was first published in January 1818 as a new novel from an anonymous author. In November 1817, History of a Six Week's Tour--a travelogue from Mary and Percy's escape to Europe--Was published. The couple, after travelling across various cities in Italy, returned to Rome in March 1819 were Mary wrote Mathilda, a semi-autobiographical novella on the theme of Father-daughter incestuous love. But this was only released around 1959, after more than a century of her death. In November 1819,Mary gave birth to their son, Percy Florence, the only chilled to live to adulthood.

though a devoted wife, Mary did not have the easiest marriage Riddled with adultery, heartache, and the death of their children , their relationship stood the test of time, IN 1822, after losing a lot of blood in a miscarriage, Mary nearly died.It was the quick-thinking efforts of her husband that have saved her. In Julu 1822,her life was rocked by another tragedy. percy and Edward who were sailing to lrghorn,were lost in a sea august 1823, resolving to live for her son.